NEOS Investment Management LLC Increases Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

NEOS Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 31.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 77,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 18,565 shares during the period. NEOS Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $9,730,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 36,120 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $690,000 after buying an additional 1,025 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the third quarter valued at about $220,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 62.1% in the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 54,496 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,681,000 after acquiring an additional 20,871 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.8% during the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 7,476 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $779,000 after acquiring an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 transaction, the insider now owns 197,444 shares in the company, valued at $26,891,872.80. The trade was a 6.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $124.00 to $129.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup cut their target price on Morgan Stanley from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Morgan Stanley from $144.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.33.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

NYSE MS opened at $122.17 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.39, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $130.39 and a 200 day moving average of $123.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $85.01 and a twelve month high of $142.03.

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

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.60%.

About Morgan Stanley

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.