Wright Investors Service Inc. Sells 4,164 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Wright Investors Service Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 15.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,164 shares during the quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $2,084,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter worth about $956,566,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 125,756.8% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,641,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $904,714,000 after acquiring an additional 10,632,735 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 3rd quarter worth about $477,765,000. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 1st quarter worth about $451,711,000. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 21.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,474,452 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,917,159,000 after acquiring an additional 4,098,577 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

MS stock traded up $0.79 during trading on Thursday, reaching $90.87. The company had a trading volume of 1,606,650 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,843,059. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $84.81. The company has a market cap of $147.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $69.42 and a twelve month high of $95.57.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.33. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 9.57% and a return on equity of 10.87%. The company had revenue of $15.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.42 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.70 EPS. Morgan Stanley’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 6.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 61.93%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Raja Akram sold 4,500 shares of Morgan Stanley 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 93,134 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,140,842.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Raja Akram sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 93,134 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,140,842.94. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.13, for a total transaction of $841,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 323,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,215,213.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 201,155 shares of company stock worth $17,564,394. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $91.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Cfra lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $97.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $115.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.79.

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.