Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 37,411 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 39% compared to the typical daily volume of 26,873 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Morgan Stanley

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 474.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 21,134 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,203,000 after buying an additional 17,454 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,711,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $491,159,000 after acquiring an additional 36,120 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Trust Co purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth about $2,040,000. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.4% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 1,152,937 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $120,182,000 after acquiring an additional 16,350 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 75.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,850,848 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $881,493,000 after purchasing an additional 3,369,520 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MS. Barclays increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. HSBC downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.40.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of MS traded up $1.97 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $137.78. The stock had a trading volume of 12,389,736 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,932,170. The business has a fifty day moving average of $129.05 and a 200 day moving average of $113.58. 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 cap of $221.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.97, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.36. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $83.09 and a 12 month high of $138.08.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $15.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 10.64%. Equities analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 7.39 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.32%.

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.