Spartan Planning & Wealth Management Takes $312,000 Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Spartan Planning & Wealth Management bought a new position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 2,480 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $312,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the third quarter worth $26,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 138.1% during the third quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Planning Capital Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 115.1% in the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 385.2% during the third quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 393 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 312 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MS. Bank of America increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a report on Friday, November 15th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $125.80.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of MS stock traded down $1.53 on Tuesday, reaching $127.11. 3,647,403 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,800,340. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $83.09 and a 1 year high of $136.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $127.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $111.80. The company has a market cap of $204.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.36.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $15.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 10.64%. Equities research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.91%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.32%.

About Morgan Stanley

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.