Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC Buys 114 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

by · The Cerbat Gem

Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) by 2.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 5,256 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 114 shares during the quarter. Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $613,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MS. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 110,132,798 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,845,895,000 after buying an additional 696,646 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,844,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,240,089,000 after buying an additional 604,024 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 25,561,560 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,213,599,000 after buying an additional 2,725,335 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 44.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 21,794,873 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,740,051,000 after buying an additional 6,744,333 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,910,200,000. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $127.00 to $160.00 in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $150.00 to $144.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $136.69.

Get Our Latest Stock Report on Morgan Stanley

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total value of $4,800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 335,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,291,800. The trade was a 10.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert H. Herz sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.32, for a total value of $95,456.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 96,760 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,545,403.20. This represents a 0.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 50,868 shares of company stock valued at $6,019,548. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $142.25 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $90.94 and a 52 week high of $145.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $228.21 billion, a PE ratio of 16.70, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $132.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $126.71.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.39. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.98% and a return on equity of 14.98%. The company had revenue of $17.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.81 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.02 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 17.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, July 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 8.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.

Further Reading

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