Morgan Stanley $MS Stock Sold by Pzena Investment Management LLC

Pzena Investment Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 54.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 208,893 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 245,599 shares during the quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $39,289,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Marquette Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 143.4% during the second quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Atlatl Advisers LLC bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hughes Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 55.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hughes Financial Services LLC now owns 137 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the period. Security National Bank of SO Dak acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Community Financial Services Group LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 297.4% during the 2nd quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 151 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MS. TD Cowen cut their price target on Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $205.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 16th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Wednesday, October 14th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $214.81.

Key Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is among the first major institutions to use the DTCC’s new tokenization service, converting U.S. equities and Treasuries into tokenized form. The move could position the firm to benefit as financial markets adopt blockchain-based infrastructure, though the revenue impact is not yet clear. Wall Street’s Plumbing Goes Onchain as Morgan Stanley Tokenizes Securities
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is helping lead Meta’s planned €9 billion debut euro bond sale, which drew strong investor demand. The underwriting work may provide fee income and reflects active debt-capital-markets business. Meta draws record orders for debut euro bond sale
• Positive Sentiment: A UBS analyst report cited in the news flow expects Morgan Stanley shares to rise, adding an upbeat analyst view; the provided article details do not specify the rationale or target. Morgan Stanley Stock Price Expected to Rise, UBS Group Analyst Says
• Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s market commentary warned that stocks could face further weakness before election uncertainty clears, and said recent technology buying may reflect short covering rather than durable investor conviction. Such volatility could weigh on trading sentiment and market-sensitive businesses. Morgan Stanley Flags Major Turn in the AI Trade

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $194.01 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $306.01 billion, a PE ratio of 14.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $152.80 and a 52 week high of $232.25. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $196.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $194.34.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.93 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $20.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.93 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.63% and a return on equity of 19.40%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.80 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 30th will be given a $1.15 dividend. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.51%.

Morgan Stanley Profile

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services company that provides investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, institutions, governments and individual investors. Founded in 1935, the company is headquartered in New York City and serves clients through operations across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and other international markets.

Through its Institutional Securities segment, Morgan Stanley offers investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading, research, lending and related capital-markets services.