Griffin Asset Management Inc. Purchases 675 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 24,018 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 675 shares during the quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $3,020,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MS. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 34.6% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 115,128 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,089,000 after purchasing an additional 29,575 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the 2nd quarter valued at $224,000. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 24.6% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 211,212 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,528,000 after acquiring an additional 41,660 shares in the last quarter. Silver Lake Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the second quarter worth $528,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.8% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 101,929 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,906,000 after purchasing an additional 3,777 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on MS shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res cut Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $136.63 on Tuesday. 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 company has a market cap of $220.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.36. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $83.09 and a 12 month high of $139.04. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $129.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $115.04.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 EPS 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 analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 8.49 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 46.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In related news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total value of $2,380,175.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,076,654.40. This represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total value of $1,783,811.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

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.