HB Wealth Management LLC Grows Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 36.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 112,615 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 29,842 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $18,533,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Purpose Unlimited Inc. bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Motiv8 Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, WFA of San Diego LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the second quarter worth about $28,000. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley won conditional OCC approval for a national digital asset trust bank, giving it a regulated path to offer crypto custody and related services to institutional clients.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary continues to highlight Morgan Stanley as a strong growth name, with Zacks pointing to the stock’s favorable growth profile and earnings-surprise history.
• Positive Sentiment: Another market note said Morgan Stanley paired its recent dividend increase with a $20 billion buyback, reinforcing capital-return strength and shareholder-friendly policies.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles compared Morgan Stanley with JPMorgan and other big banks, but these were mostly valuation/style discussions rather than direct new fundamental catalysts.
• Neutral Sentiment: One analyst note mentioned Morgan Stanley lowered its price target on EQT Corp., which is unrelated to MS’s own operations and is unlikely to be a major driver for Morgan Stanley shares.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.24, for a total transaction of $2,779,935.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 365,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,224,370.48. This trade represents a 3.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 11,118 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.75, for a total transaction of $2,120,758.50. Following the sale, the insider owned 169,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,313,622.25. This trade represents a 6.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 77,476 shares of company stock valued at $14,644,762. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Dbs Bank upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $185.00 to $220.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Barclays raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $219.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.50.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 0.2%

MS stock opened at $214.27 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $135.26 and a fifty-two week high of $230.47. The company has a market capitalization of $337.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $205.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $185.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.02 by $0.41. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 17.70% and a net margin of 14.65%.The company had revenue of $20.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.60 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 11.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, June 24th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is 36.23%.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1935 by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley, the company provides a broad range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individual investors. Leadership has been guided by a senior executive team and board of directors; James P. Gorman has served as the company’s chief executive and chairman in recent years.

The firm’s primary business activities are organized around three principal businesses: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management.