MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB Reduces Stock Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB reduced its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,118 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,239 shares during the quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $13,403,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MS. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 40.1% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 29,744 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,281,000 after purchasing an additional 8,512 shares during the period. BOCHK Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,260,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 11.2% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 646,571 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $116,102,000 after buying an additional 65,246 shares in the last quarter. Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the first quarter worth about $8,854,000. Finally, Arsenal Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth about $814,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wealth-management growth opportunity from IPOs: Morgan Stanley is reportedly positioning its wealth-management business to capture substantial client assets from an expected wave of initial public offerings. Successful IPO execution could generate underwriting fees while adding new assets and relationships to its wealth platform. Morgan Stanley IPO after-party: a wealth management bonanza
• Positive Sentiment: Crypto expansion may support fee growth: Morgan Stanley has launched new Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded funds, broadening its digital-asset offering. The products could attract trading activity, advisory relationships and fee-generating assets, while strengthening the firm’s wealth-management “flywheel.” Morgan Stanley Just Launched New Ethereum and Solana ETFs
• Positive Sentiment: Constructive technology outlook: Morgan Stanley research expects cloud spending to reach roughly $1.4 trillion in 2027 and says open-weight AI could expand overall compute and power demand, even if it pressures application-programming-interface pricing. This supports potential advisory, financing and trading opportunities across AI, cloud and infrastructure markets. Morgan Stanley Sees Cloud Spending Hitting $1.4 Trillion in 2027
• Positive Sentiment: Strong market backdrop for trading and investment banking: A sharp Nasdaq rebound and Morgan Stanley’s view that technology-sector rotation may continue could improve equity-trading volumes, equity issuance and investor risk appetite. Nasdaq Nears 2% Gains. The Tech Trade Is So Back
• Neutral Sentiment: Client activity data released: E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley published its monthly sector-rotation study, offering insight into whether clients were net buyers or sellers across major sectors. The release highlights platform engagement but did not disclose an immediate earnings impact. E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley Releases Monthly Sector Rotation Study
• Negative Sentiment: Credit-market risk remains a consideration: Loan investors are reportedly demanding higher borrowing costs, which could pressure leveraged borrowers and reduce financing activity. This is a potential headwind for Morgan Stanley’s lending and capital-markets businesses, although the article does not identify a company-specific problem. Loan Investors Are Pushing Back as Fear Rises

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of MS opened at $211.31 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. The company has a market capitalization of $333.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.08, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.22. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $215.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $191.04. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $139.41 and a 1 year high of $232.25.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. The firm had revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.51% and a net margin of 15.65%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.13 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, June 24th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be issued a $1.15 dividend. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 31st. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.19%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MS shares. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $183.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Argus boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $224.75.

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.