Magnus Financial Group LLC Has $1.38 Million Stock Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

06 Jun 2025, 13:12 by Danessa Lincoln · The Markets Daily

Magnus Financial Group LLC lessened its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) by 8.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 11,811 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,160 shares during the period. Magnus Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,378,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 110,132,798 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,845,895,000 after purchasing an additional 696,646 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.4% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 604,024 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 25,561,560 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,213,599,000 after acquiring an additional 2,725,335 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,833,937 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,870,683,000 after acquiring an additional 428,956 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 44.8% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 6,744,333 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In related news, Director Robert H. Herz sold 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.32, for a total value of $95,456.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 96,760 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,545,403.20. This represents a 0.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were 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 now owns 335,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,291,800. The trade was a 10.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 50,868 shares of company stock worth $6,019,548 over the last three months. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on MS. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $150.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $144.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $120.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.46.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on MS

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

NYSE:MS opened at $130.53 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $118.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $125.29. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $90.94 and a fifty-two week high of $142.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $209.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.44, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.29. 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 Friday, April 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.21 by $0.39. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. The company had revenue of $17.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.81 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.02 EPS. Morgan Stanley’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th were paid a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.83%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.43%.

About Morgan Stanley

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