Portside Wealth Group LLC Raises Stock Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Portside Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 14.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,030 shares during the quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $838,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,711,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $491,159,000 after purchasing an additional 36,120 shares in the last quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,660,000. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 17.8% in the 2nd quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,768 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $561,000 after buying an additional 871 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 115.0% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 223,668 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $20,305,000 after buying an additional 119,633 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 1st quarter valued at $87,558,000. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Morgan Stanley news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total transaction of $7,150,200.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 138,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,488,718.71. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Oppenheimer cut Morgan Stanley from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.24.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of MS stock opened at $129.53 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.96, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $73.96 and a fifty-two week high of $133.52. The firm has a market cap of $210.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.34. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $109.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $102.36.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.31. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 10.64% and a return on equity of 12.69%. The business had revenue of $15.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.27 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 7.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st will be paid a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 56.32%.

Morgan Stanley 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.