Impact Capital Partners LLC Takes Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Impact Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 7,585 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $954,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Van ECK Associates Corp purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $215,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 0.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,711,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $491,159,000 after buying an additional 36,120 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the third quarter worth $110,000. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 4.1% during the third quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 31,656 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,300,000 after buying an additional 1,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the third quarter worth $513,000. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total transaction of $2,380,175.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 81,440 shares in the company, valued at $11,076,654.40. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total value of $1,783,811.40. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 197,444 shares in the company, 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 currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Bank of America raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $146.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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 report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock opened at $113.99 on Thursday. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $85.01 and a twelve month high of $142.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $183.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.36, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $131.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.22.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. The company had revenue of $16.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.13 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.