Lansing Street Advisors Has $1.56 Million Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Lansing Street Advisors boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,385 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 101 shares during the period. Lansing Street Advisors’ holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,557,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of MS. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 10.9% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 256,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,755,000 after buying an additional 25,179 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 9.8% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 112,793 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,758,000 after buying an additional 10,107 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2.0% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 73,405 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,652,000 after buying an additional 1,408 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 9.7% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 62,267 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,491,000 after buying an additional 5,502 shares during the period. Finally, Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 5.6% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 17,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,827,000 after buying an additional 937 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of MS stock opened at $131.60 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $212.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.37. Morgan Stanley has a 12-month low of $84.43 and a 12-month high of $142.03. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $132.37 and a 200-day moving average of $119.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 14.39%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were given a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.60%.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 81,440 shares in the company, valued at $11,076,654.40. This trade represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Morgan Stanley Company 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.