D L Carlson Investment Group Inc. Trims Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

D L Carlson Investment Group Inc. lowered its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 22,451 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 331 shares during the period. D L Carlson Investment Group Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $2,823,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Axiom Investors LLC DE acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at about $195,742,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 300,015 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $38,360,000 after acquiring an additional 11,710 shares during the last quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 41.8% during the 4th quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC now owns 7,705 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,272 shares during the period. Summit Securities Group LLC increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 150.0% in the 4th quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC now owns 1,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $189,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 50.8% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 7,282,156 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $915,731,000 after purchasing an additional 2,453,470 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $146.00 to $153.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $124.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $142.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $131.53.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 3.2 %

NYSE MS opened at $115.23 on Monday. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $85.01 and a 12 month high of $142.03. The company has a market capitalization of $185.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $129.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $123.97.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.68. The business had revenue of $16.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were given a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.60%.

Insider Activity

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction 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 Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total value of $2,380,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 81,440 shares in the company, valued at $11,076,654.40. This trade represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

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.