GAMMA Investing LLC Purchases 4,523 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 12.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 39,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,523 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $8,284,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MS. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 23.4% during the 2nd quarter. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc now owns 3,114 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $651,000 after purchasing an additional 591 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 12.8% in the second quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 5,351 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,118,000 after purchasing an additional 606 shares in the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 38.0% in the second quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 13,651 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,854,000 after purchasing an additional 3,756 shares during the period. Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter worth $4,383,000. Finally, Sandy Cove Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.5% during the second quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 34,988 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,314,000 after buying an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Freedom Capital raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $224.75.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $217.28 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $215.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $191.29. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $139.41 and a fifty-two week high of $232.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $342.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.22. 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 (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. The firm had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.51% and a net margin of 15.65%.The business’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 company posted $2.13 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 31st. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, June 24th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to purchase up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Trending Headlines about Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain cautiously optimistic on Morgan Stanley after the company outperformed the broader market over the past year. The firm’s wealth-management scale, capital-markets exposure and earnings momentum remain key parts of the bullish thesis. Are Wall Street Analysts Predicting Morgan Stanley Stock Will Climb or Sink?
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management strategy is receiving support from the expansion of cryptocurrency offerings, which could strengthen its broader “wealth-management flywheel” by attracting assets, increasing client engagement and creating additional fee opportunities. Morgan Stanley: Why Crypto Strengthens The Wealth Management Flywheel
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE platform reported monthly sector-rotation data, highlighting client trading activity across major U.S. equity sectors. The release provides market insight but does not materially change Morgan Stanley’s earnings outlook. E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley Releases Monthly Sector Rotation Study
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader Morgan Stanley research remains supportive of technology, cloud spending and AI-related infrastructure, which could benefit the firm’s investment-banking and advisory activity if elevated dealmaking continues. However, these are industry-level themes rather than new company-specific catalysts. Blackstone Has Pitched Mega Debt Package for Anthropic Chip Deal
• Negative Sentiment: The analyst outlook is not uniformly bullish: “cautiously optimistic” commentary suggests valuation and market-cycle risks remain, particularly if capital-markets activity, trading revenue or asset-management inflows weaken.

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.