Schear Investment Advisers LLC Buys 3,018 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Schear Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 28.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,809 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,018 shares during the period. Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,736,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 256,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,755,000 after buying an additional 25,179 shares in the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 14.0% in the third quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 14,690 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,531,000 after acquiring an additional 1,803 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the third quarter worth approximately $201,000. CX Institutional raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 8.1% during the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 7,139 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $744,000 after purchasing an additional 536 shares during the period. Finally, Wesbanco Bank Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 160,458 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,726,000 after purchasing an additional 5,984 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. HSBC downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the company from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $137.80 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $130.80 and a 200 day moving average of $117.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. The company has a market capitalization of $222.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.37. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $83.09 and a 52 week high of $142.03.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.68. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. The firm had revenue of $16.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.13 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 46.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

About Morgan Stanley

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.