Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Buys 110,182 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 59.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 296,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 110,182 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $48,748,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Purpose Unlimited Inc. bought a new position in Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Motiv8 Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Argus upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $186.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $207.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, CICC Research lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.50.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $214.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52. The company has a market cap of $337.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.23. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $135.26 and a 52 week high of $230.47. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $204.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $185.47.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly 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 return on equity of 17.70% and a net margin of 14.65%.The firm had revenue of $20.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 11.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is 36.23%.

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has approved a stock buyback 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 purchase up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Key Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley secured conditional OCC approval for a trust charter, moving it closer to offering a federally supervised digital-asset trust and strengthening its long-term crypto custody strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary from market outlets highlighted Morgan Stanley’s favorable stance on traditional asset managers and bank stocks, which can support sentiment toward MS’s wealth-management and capital-markets model.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor articles also noted Morgan Stanley’s recently announced dividend hike and $20 billion buyback, reinforcing capital-return support for the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several recent posts discussed Morgan Stanley research on other companies, including price-target changes on stocks like American Airlines, Edison International, and Dominion Energy; these are informative but not direct catalysts for MS.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 11,118 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.75, for a total value of $2,120,758.50. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 169,403 shares in the company, valued at $32,313,622.25. This represents a 6.16% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.24, for a total transaction of $2,779,935.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 365,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,224,370.48. The trade was a 3.86% 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 worth $14,644,762 in the last three months. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.