NEOS Investment Management LLC Purchases 18,565 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

NEOS Investment Management LLC raised its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 31.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 77,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,565 shares during the quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $9,730,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. 1ST Source Bank increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 15,925 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,002,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.6% in the 4th 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 during the period. DGS Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $554,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the period. Finally, Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in 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 buying an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In related news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 81,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,076,654.40. This represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $144.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Barclays upped their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Erste Group Bank downgraded Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $132.33.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 2.4 %

MS stock opened at $122.17 on Thursday. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $85.01 and a twelve month high of $142.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $130.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $123.50.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders 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 3.03%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 46.60%.

Morgan Stanley Company 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.