abrdn plc Sells 96,381 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

abrdn plc trimmed its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 5.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,532,571 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 96,381 shares during the period. abrdn plc owned about 0.10% of Morgan Stanley worth $192,537,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MS. Peoples Bank KS acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 138.1% during the 3rd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on MS shares. Citigroup lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $131.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total transaction of $2,380,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares in the company, valued at $11,076,654.40. This trade represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total value of $1,783,811.40. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,891,872.80. This trade represents a 6.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

NYSE MS opened at $137.26 on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $83.09 and a fifty-two week high of $141.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.29, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.36. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $129.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $116.20.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.68. The company had revenue of $16.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.13 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.60%.

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.