Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Has $2.85 Million Stock Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 38.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,651 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,756 shares during the quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $2,854,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MS. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,253,554,000 after buying an additional 1,361,940 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 103,854,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $18,437,334,000 after buying an additional 539,544 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,070,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,786,350,000 after buying an additional 534,708 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 25,018,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,441,505,000 after acquiring an additional 524,189 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,326,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,881,000 after acquiring an additional 87,533 shares in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Morgan Stanley News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain cautiously optimistic on Morgan Stanley after the company outperformed the broader market over the past year. The firm’s wealth-management scale, capital-markets exposure and earnings momentum remain key parts of the bullish thesis. Are Wall Street Analysts Predicting Morgan Stanley Stock Will Climb or Sink?
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management strategy is receiving support from the expansion of cryptocurrency offerings, which could strengthen its broader “wealth-management flywheel” by attracting assets, increasing client engagement and creating additional fee opportunities. Morgan Stanley: Why Crypto Strengthens The Wealth Management Flywheel
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE platform reported monthly sector-rotation data, highlighting client trading activity across major U.S. equity sectors. The release provides market insight but does not materially change Morgan Stanley’s earnings outlook. E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley Releases Monthly Sector Rotation Study
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader Morgan Stanley research remains supportive of technology, cloud spending and AI-related infrastructure, which could benefit the firm’s investment-banking and advisory activity if elevated dealmaking continues. However, these are industry-level themes rather than new company-specific catalysts. Blackstone Has Pitched Mega Debt Package for Anthropic Chip Deal
• Negative Sentiment: The analyst outlook is not uniformly bullish: “cautiously optimistic” commentary suggests valuation and market-cycle risks remain, particularly if capital-markets activity, trading revenue or asset-management inflows weaken.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of MS stock opened at $217.28 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $215.82 and its 200-day moving average is $191.29. The stock has a market cap of $342.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.57, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.22. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $139.41 and a 52-week high of $232.25.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.51%. The business had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.67 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.13 EPS. Morgan Stanley’s revenue was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, June 24th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be given a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 31st. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 37.19%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MS has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Freedom Capital raised Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Argus raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $183.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $224.75.

Morgan Stanley Profile

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.