Montag A & Associates Inc. Sells 546 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Montag A & Associates Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 67,550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 546 shares during the period. Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $8,492,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,240,729 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,621,140,000 after purchasing an additional 269,633 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,404,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,335,495,000 after purchasing an additional 590,872 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.8% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,454,177 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $881,263,000 after buying an additional 385,780 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 75.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,850,848 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $881,493,000 after buying an additional 3,369,520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,711,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $491,159,000 after buying an additional 36,120 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total value of $2,380,175.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,076,654.40. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,891,872.80. This trade represents a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $146.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of MS opened at $139.19 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $84.41 and a 52 week high of $142.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $131.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $118.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.37.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. The business had revenue of $16.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.13 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were issued a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.60%.

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.