Liontrust Investment Partners LLP Has $9.89 Million Stake in Morgan Stanley $MS

by · The Cerbat Gem

Liontrust Investment Partners LLP lowered its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) by 30.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 70,229 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 31,351 shares during the period. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $9,892,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,123,487 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,779,734,000 after acquiring an additional 1,354,142 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,045,186 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,387,005,000 after purchasing an additional 749,150 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,234,883,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 13,807,153 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,610,881,000 after purchasing an additional 403,956 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 13,438,530 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,894,023,000 after buying an additional 374,711 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MS. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Citigroup increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $173.38.

Get Our Latest Research Report on Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

MS stock opened at $178.57 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $94.33 and a 1-year high of $181.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The firm has a market cap of $283.81 billion, a PE ratio of 18.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.22. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $164.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $151.23.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.73. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 16.40% and a net margin of 13.85%.The company had revenue of $17.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.88 earnings per share. Morgan Stanley’s revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 31st were paid a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 31st. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 41.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other news, CEO Edward Pick sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.34, for a total transaction of $16,434,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 574,986 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $94,493,199.24. This represents a 14.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Morgan Stanley

(Free Report)

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.

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