EJMK Ventures LLC Makes New $409,000 Investment in Morgan Stanley $MS

EJMK Ventures LLC acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 2,304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $409,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,736,648,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 29.1% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,917,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,648,354,000 after buying an additional 3,364,080 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 142.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,122,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $511,723,000 after buying an additional 1,833,844 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,253,554,000 after buying an additional 1,361,940 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 2,332.9% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,406,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $249,710,000 after acquiring an additional 1,348,683 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the subject of several analyst reports. HSBC lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $153.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. UBS Group raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $196.00 to $214.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Evercore boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Daiwa Securities Group upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Dbs Bank increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $185.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $206.35.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 0.2%

NYSE MS opened at $223.69 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $199.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $182.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $130.90 and a fifty-two week high of $230.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $352.82 billion, a PE ratio of 20.26, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.23.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.02 by $0.41. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 17.70% and a net margin of 14.65%.The company had revenue of $20.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.60 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 11.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 30th were paid a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.23%.

Key Morgan Stanley News

Here are the key news stories impacting Morgan Stanley this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s investment management arm, together with Ridgeback Group, agreed to acquire Metra Living, a UK private rental business, for about £1.045 billion. The deal expands MS into residential rental assets and highlights its ability to deploy capital into new fee-generating businesses. Morgan Stanley Buys Into UK Rentals With £1.045b Metra Living Deal
• Positive Sentiment: Investors are also reacting to Morgan Stanley’s strong recent operating results: the firm posted Q1 EPS of $3.43, topping estimates, and revenue of $20.58 billion, also ahead of expectations, with year-over-year revenue growth of 16%. That supports the view that fundamentals remain solid after the stock’s big run. Morgan Stanley stock performance and earnings background
• Positive Sentiment: News that Morgan Stanley is part of the bank group working on possible OpenAI and Anthropic IPOs adds another potential catalyst, since high-profile tech listings could boost advisory and capital markets fees if they move forward. OpenAI, Anthropic IPOs Spark Battle Between Goldman And Morgan Stanley
• Neutral Sentiment: Several commentary pieces also frame MS as a long-term momentum name and note that the stock has been trading near its highs, which may be attracting trend-following buyers rather than pointing to a single new catalyst. Why Morgan Stanley is a Top Momentum Stock for the Long-Term

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other news, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.24, for a total value of $2,779,935.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 365,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,224,370.48. This represents a 3.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 51,668 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.59, for a total transaction of $9,744,068.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 282,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,209,159.78. The trade was a 15.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 77,476 shares of company stock valued at $14,644,762 over the last ninety days. 0.17% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Morgan Stanley Profile

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1935 by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley, the company provides a broad range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individual investors. Leadership has been guided by a senior executive team and board of directors; James P. Gorman has served as the company’s chief executive and chairman in recent years.

The firm’s primary business activities are organized around three principal businesses: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management.