Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Price Target Raised to $240.00

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) had its price target raised by UBS Group from $236.00 to $240.00 in a research note released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $205.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Erste Group Bank downgraded Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Wednesday, October 14th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $214.81.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 4.3%

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $194.01 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $196.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $194.34. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $152.80 and a 52-week high of $232.25. The firm has a market cap of $306.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.93 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $20.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.93 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.63% and a return on equity of 19.40%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.80 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 13th. Investors of record on Friday, October 30th will be issued a $1.15 dividend. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.51%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Morgan Stanley

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter worth about $78,825,883,310. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.5% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,326,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,881,000 after buying an additional 87,533 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,206,144 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,342,532,000 after buying an additional 188,296 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 9,794,288 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,611,846,000 after buying an additional 422,775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,235,756 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,190,585,000 after buying an additional 65,739 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

More Morgan Stanley News

Here are the key news stories impacting Morgan Stanley this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is among the first major institutions to use the DTCC’s new tokenization service, converting U.S. equities and Treasuries into tokenized form. The move could position the firm to benefit as financial markets adopt blockchain-based infrastructure, though the revenue impact is not yet clear. Wall Street’s Plumbing Goes Onchain as Morgan Stanley Tokenizes Securities
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is helping lead Meta’s planned €9 billion debut euro bond sale, which drew strong investor demand. The underwriting work may provide fee income and reflects active debt-capital-markets business. Meta draws record orders for debut euro bond sale
• Positive Sentiment: A UBS analyst report cited in the news flow expects Morgan Stanley shares to rise, adding an upbeat analyst view; the provided article details do not specify the rationale or target. Morgan Stanley Stock Price Expected to Rise, UBS Group Analyst Says
• Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s market commentary warned that stocks could face further weakness before election uncertainty clears, and said recent technology buying may reflect short covering rather than durable investor conviction. Such volatility could weigh on trading sentiment and market-sensitive businesses. Morgan Stanley Flags Major Turn in the AI Trade

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services company that provides investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, institutions, governments and individual investors. Founded in 1935, the company is headquartered in New York City and serves clients through operations across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and other international markets.

Through its Institutional Securities segment, Morgan Stanley offers investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading, research, lending and related capital-markets services.