LPL Financial LLC Grows Stock Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,656,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 247,171 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $172,630,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 3,748 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $391,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Omnia Family Wealth LLC raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 3.3% during the third quarter. Omnia Family Wealth LLC now owns 3,063 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $319,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. TFB Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.9% during the third quarter. TFB Advisors LLC now owns 2,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $277,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.3% in the third quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA now owns 33,850 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,529,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lansing Street Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lansing Street Advisors now owns 12,284 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,280,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total transaction of $7,150,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 138,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,488,718.71. This trade represents a 30.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on MS. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. HSBC upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.94.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 2.6 %

MS opened at $135.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market cap of $217.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.34. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $115.43 and its 200 day moving average is $104.89. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $76.33 and a fifty-two week high of $135.57.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 10.64% and a return on equity of 12.58%. The firm had revenue of $15.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.27 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 7.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.32%.

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.