Quotient Wealth Partners LLC Acquires 510 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Quotient Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 15.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,897 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 510 shares during the period. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $490,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MS. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at $3,962,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 17.1% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 77,156 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,700,000 after buying an additional 11,249 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 44.4% during the 4th quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 30,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,836,000 after buying an additional 9,377 shares in the last quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $211,000. Finally, Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 34,329 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,316,000 after acquiring an additional 2,673 shares in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on MS. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Bank of America raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $146.00 to $153.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res cut Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $139.88 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $225.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.62, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.37. The business’s 50 day moving average is $130.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $117.35. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $83.09 and a 1-year high of $142.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 14.39%. The company had revenue of $16.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 46.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares in the company, valued at $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total transaction of $2,380,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 81,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,076,654.40. This represents a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.