Legal & General Group Plc Cuts Stake in Morgan Stanley $MS

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,261,749 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 149,586 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,466,708,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,253,554,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361,940 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 27,321,214 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,343,523,000 after acquiring an additional 167,487 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,494,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,893,590,000 after acquiring an additional 448,960 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 6.1% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,260,650 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,267,847,000 after buying an additional 822,120 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 3.8% in the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 9,712,071 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,543,831,000 after buying an additional 354,871 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MS has been the topic of several research reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $171.00 to $183.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $173.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $186.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Citizens Jmp restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday, April 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.95.

Key Stories Impacting Morgan Stanley

Here are the key news stories impacting Morgan Stanley this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Seeking Alpha flagged that Morgan Stanley was upgraded to Buy after its strong first-quarter results, reinforcing the view that recent earnings momentum is still supporting the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage also noted that Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) ahead of the GTA VI release, underscoring continued active equity-research influence and a generally constructive tone from the bank’s analysts. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s own recent stock commentary said MS has delivered a strong one-year rally, with investors still debating valuation versus earnings power rather than reacting to any single new company-specific surprise. Article Title

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 11,118 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.75, for a total transaction of $2,120,758.50. Following the sale, the insider owned 169,403 shares in the company, valued at $32,313,622.25. This trade represents a 6.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 51,668 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.59, for a total transaction of $9,744,068.12. Following the sale, the insider owned 282,142 shares in the company, valued at $53,209,159.78. This represents a 15.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 77,476 shares of company stock worth $14,644,762 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE MS opened at $201.18 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $317.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.22, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.22. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $179.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $176.10. Morgan Stanley has a one year low of $123.88 and a one year high of $203.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.02 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $20.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.23 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 14.65% and a return on equity of 17.70%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.60 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 11.85 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.23%.

About Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1935 by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley, the company provides a broad range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individual investors. Leadership has been guided by a senior executive team and board of directors; James P. Gorman has served as the company’s chief executive and chairman in recent years.

The firm’s primary business activities are organized around three principal businesses: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management.