Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 212 shares during the period. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $292,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 12.6% during the first quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 14,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,397,000 after purchasing an additional 1,658 shares during the last quarter. Connors Investor Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.3% in the first quarter. Connors Investor Services Inc. now owns 235,830 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $22,206,000 after acquiring an additional 608 shares in the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 5.8% during the first quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 5,816,843 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $547,714,000 after acquiring an additional 316,924 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 58.0% during the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 4,303 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $405,000 after purchasing an additional 1,580 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobi Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 30.7% in the 1st quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 3,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $311,000 after purchasing an additional 775 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MS. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $111.29.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of MS stock traded up $1.63 on Friday, hitting $134.06. The stock had a trading volume of 7,281,941 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,093,088. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $112.55 and its 200-day moving average is $103.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $215.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.34. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $76.33 and a 52-week high of $134.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 10.64%. The business had revenue of $15.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.27 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 7.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were given a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 56.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In related news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total value of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 138,363 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,488,718.71. This trade represents a 30.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.