Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Purchases 6,427 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 26.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 30,869 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,427 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $3,881,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Van ECK Associates Corp bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the third quarter worth $215,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 10.9% during the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 17,441 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,818,000 after acquiring an additional 1,717 shares in the last quarter. Graypoint LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 7.9% in the third quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 6,633 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $691,000 after acquiring an additional 487 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,711,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $491,159,000 after purchasing an additional 36,120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Keudell Morrison Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $249,000. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In related news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,076,654.40. This represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on MS shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. HSBC lowered Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $146.00 to $153.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 0.2 %

Morgan Stanley stock opened at $119.12 on Friday. 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 has a 52-week low of $85.01 and a 52-week high of $142.03. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $132.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $121.83. The firm has a market cap of $192.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.00, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.68. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 14.39%. The firm had revenue of $16.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.13 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders 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 yield of 3.11%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.60%.

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.