Truvestments Capital LLC Buys 1,738 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Truvestments Capital LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 39.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,184 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,738 shares during the period. Truvestments Capital LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $777,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 6,156 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $774,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $594,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $554,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,004 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $378,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quent Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 12,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,546,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MS has been the topic of several analyst reports. 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 research report on Monday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE MS opened at $112.18 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $85.01 and a 1-year high of $142.03. The company has a 50 day moving average of $132.01 and a 200-day moving average of $122.27. The company has a market cap of $180.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.13, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35.

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

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.30%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.60%.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. The trade was 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 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 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.