Ibex Wealth Advisors Invests $503,000 in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Ibex Wealth Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,999 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $503,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DGS Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $554,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Morgan Stanley by 2.7% during 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 during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Morgan Stanley by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,748 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $346,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the period. Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC now owns 2,697 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $339,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mason & Associates Inc lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Mason & Associates Inc now owns 3,177 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $399,000 after buying an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MS. Barclays lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a report on Friday, November 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.27.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In related news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total transaction of $2,380,175.00. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, 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. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of MS stock opened at $138.77 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $223.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.48, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.36. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $129.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $115.51.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. The company had revenue of $16.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 14.39%. The firm’s revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.13 EPS. Analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.67%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 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.