Morgan Stanley $MS Shares Purchased by White Pine Capital LLC

White Pine Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 2.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,820 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 335 shares during the quarter. White Pine Capital LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $2,228,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,123,487 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,779,734,000 after acquiring an additional 1,354,142 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 21.2% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 17,056,916 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,990,030,000 after purchasing an additional 2,989,122 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 3.0% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 13,807,153 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,610,881,000 after purchasing an additional 403,956 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.7% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 13,063,819 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,523,337,000 after purchasing an additional 219,729 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 4.8% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 9,652,910 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,126,205,000 after purchasing an additional 442,617 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In other news, CEO Edward Pick sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.34, for a total transaction of $16,434,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 574,986 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $94,493,199.24. This represents a 14.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MS shares. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $122.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Morgan Stanley in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $180.00 price objective for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $168.23.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $158.71 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30. The business’s 50 day moving average is $160.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $145.98. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $94.33 and a 52-week high of $171.77. The firm has a market cap of $252.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.28, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.33.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.73. The business had revenue of $17.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 16.55% and a net margin of 13.85%.The company’s revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.88 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 31st. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is 41.03%.

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.