Diversify Wealth Management LLC Has $2.89 Million Stock Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

Diversify Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 201.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 17,559 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 11,726 shares during the quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $2,890,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Valmark Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 4,150 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $683,000 after acquiring an additional 335 shares during the period. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.3% during the first quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 160,825 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,467,000 after acquiring an additional 2,075 shares during the period. Carnegie Investment Counsel boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 5.9% during the first quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 6,136 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,010,000 after acquiring an additional 342 shares during the period. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.8% in the first quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 324,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $53,456,000 after purchasing an additional 2,488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Midwest Trust Co grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 9.1% in the first quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 177,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,215,000 after purchasing an additional 14,780 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America expects Morgan Stanley to top both consensus and its own earnings estimates, helped by strong capital markets activity, wealth-management inflows, and a favorable operating backdrop.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst commentary points to stronger trading revenue, higher investment-banking fees, and improving net interest income as catalysts for a solid second quarter.
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors appear to be positioning ahead of Morgan Stanley’s earnings release on July 15, which is keeping attention on the stock but also introducing event risk.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent valuation-focused commentary suggested the shares may be expensive relative to current fundamentals, which could cap upside if earnings fail to impress.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer cut Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $214.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $215.20.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In related news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 51,668 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.59, for a total value of $9,744,068.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 282,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $53,209,159.78. This trade represents a 15.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 11,118 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.75, for a total transaction of $2,120,758.50. Following the sale, the insider owned 169,403 shares in the company, valued at $32,313,622.25. This represents a 6.16% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 77,476 shares of company stock valued at $14,644,762. 0.17% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of MS opened at $221.50 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $209.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $187.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $349.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $135.26 and a 52 week high of $230.47.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.02 by $0.41. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 14.65% and a return on equity of 17.70%. The business had revenue of $20.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 11.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

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

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, June 24th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Morgan Stanley

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.