928 Shares in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Purchased by Rakuten Securities Inc.

Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 928 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $87,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CGC Financial Services LLC grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 5,200.0% in the 4th quarter. CGC Financial Services LLC now owns 265 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. RVW Wealth LLC bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 77.3% in the 3rd quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 328 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 810.8% in the 3rd quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 337 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MS. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Cfra raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $97.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, HSBC raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.18.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

NYSE MS opened at $90.08 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $88.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $84.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $146.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.43. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $69.42 and a 52-week high of $95.57.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $15.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 9.57% and a return on equity of 10.87%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.70 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 6.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be given a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.93%.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.41, for a total value of $393,345.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 93,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,140,842.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Raja Akram sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.41, for a total transaction of $393,345.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 93,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,140,842.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.93, for a total transaction of $4,396,500.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 400,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,172,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 201,155 shares of company stock valued at $17,564,394 over the last three months. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.