Legal & General Group Plc Has $1.01 Billion Stock Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 23.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,040,164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,410,539 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.50% of Morgan Stanley worth $1,010,809,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Peoples Bank KS bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. IAG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Curio Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Stonebridge Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In related news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. This trade represents a 6.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total value of $2,380,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 81,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,076,654.40. This trade represents a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 7.6 %

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock opened at $99.75 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $85.01 and a 52 week high of $142.03. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $127.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $124.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.88 billion, a PE ratio of 12.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.30.

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

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.60%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup cut their target price 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, March 24th. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $150.00 to $144.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Barclays increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $150.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $142.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.87.

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.