Davis Investment Partners LLC Invests $204,000 in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Davis Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 1,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Peoples Bank KS acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 138.1% in the third quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the period. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 115.1% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total value of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 138,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,488,718.71. This trade represents a 30.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MS. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. HSBC downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $126.07.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE MS traded up $0.58 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $124.03. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,424,712 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,796,216. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $128.45 and a 200 day moving average of $112.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $199.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.88, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $83.09 and a twelve month high of $136.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $15.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 10.64% and a return on equity of 12.58%. Equities research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were issued a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.32%.

Morgan Stanley Profile

Morgan Stanley, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. It operates through Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management segments.