Bay Capital Advisors LLC Invests $555,000 in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Bay Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 4,414 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $555,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 75.2% in 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 buying an additional 3,369,520 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $324,118,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 382.4% during the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,597,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $166,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,266,600 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 111.7% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,331,960 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $293,174,000 after purchasing an additional 1,230,623 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 26,142.5% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,055,210 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $132,661,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051,189 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MS. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $144.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. 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 report on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res cut Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $130.93.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of Morgan Stanley 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 $11,076,654.40. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $124.38 on Tuesday. 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $130.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.31. The stock has a market cap of $200.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.67, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $85.01 and a fifty-two week high of $142.03.

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

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were issued a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.97%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.60%.

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.