Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Has $3.88 Million Stock Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 26.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,869 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,427 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $3,881,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Peoples Bank KS bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 138.1% during the 3rd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,076,654.40. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. The trade was a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MS shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. HSBC cut shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 0.2 %

MS opened at $119.12 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $85.01 and a 1-year high of $142.03. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $132.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $121.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. The stock has a market cap of $192.12 billion, a PE ratio of 15.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. Morgan Stanley’s revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.13 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.11%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.60%.

Morgan Stanley 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.