500 Shares in Morgan Stanley $MS Acquired by Pineridge Advisors LLC

Pineridge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $70,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,123,487 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,779,734,000 after acquiring an additional 1,354,142 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 21.2% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 17,056,916 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,990,030,000 after purchasing an additional 2,989,122 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 13,807,153 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,610,881,000 after purchasing an additional 403,956 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 13,063,819 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,523,337,000 after purchasing an additional 219,729 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.8% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 9,652,910 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,126,205,000 after purchasing an additional 442,617 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $176.00 to $184.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. UBS Group raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $168.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, CEO Edward Pick sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.34, for a total transaction of $16,434,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 574,986 shares in the company, valued at approximately $94,493,199.24. This represents a 14.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of MS stock opened at $159.83 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $160.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $145.77. The company has a market cap of $254.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $94.33 and a twelve month high of $171.77.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.73. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 13.85% and a return on equity of 16.55%. The firm had revenue of $17.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.88 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 31st. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.03%.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

Morgan Stanley, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. It operates through Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management segments.