Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC Has $1.77 Million Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley $MS

Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 3.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 15,144 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 438 shares during the quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,767,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Omnia Family Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Omnia Family Wealth LLC now owns 3,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $395,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 3,638 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $457,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Insight Inv LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Insight Inv LLC now owns 18,378 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,144,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. now owns 264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vivaldi Capital Management LP grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 5,096 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $696,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MS. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $127.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $136.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $130.00 price target (up previously from $125.00) on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $138.25.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $144.0920 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30. The stock has a market cap of $230.02 billion, a PE ratio of 16.32, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.32. The company’s fifty day moving average is $140.67 and its 200 day moving average is $128.94. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $94.09 and a 52 week high of $149.08.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $16.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.15 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 13.06% and a return on equity of 15.20%. The company’s revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.82 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were paid a $1.00 dividend. This is an increase from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 31st. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 45.30%.

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, July 1st that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 8.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Michael A. Pizzi sold 18,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.62, for a total value of $2,531,160.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 136,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,181,552.34. The trade was a 11.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 29,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.13, for a total transaction of $4,092,770.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 399,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,325,688.65. This represents a 6.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 148,149 shares of company stock worth $20,841,628. 0.19% 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.