West Branch Capital LLC Increases Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

by · The Markets Daily

West Branch Capital LLC boosted its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) by 300.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,295 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 972 shares during the period. West Branch Capital LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $163,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MS. AE Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 44.9% in the second quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,242 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,093,000 after acquiring an additional 3,484 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 89,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,656,000 after purchasing an additional 3,874 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 254,118 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,698,000 after buying an additional 11,407 shares during the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 27.8% in the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 4,723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after buying an additional 1,028 shares during the period. Finally, Interval Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the second quarter worth about $6,288,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, HSBC cut Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the company from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.27.

Get Our Latest Research Report on Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of MS stock opened at $137.42 on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $83.09 and a fifty-two week high of $138.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.31, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.36. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $129.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $114.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. The firm had revenue of $16.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 14.39%. Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.13 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 46.60%.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

(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.

See Also

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