Bison Wealth LLC Reduces Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Bison Wealth LLC reduced its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 31.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,382 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,219,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MS. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 474.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 17,454 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,711,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $491,159,000 after purchasing an additional 36,120 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Trust Co acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,040,000. Johnson & White Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $597,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 75.2% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In related news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 10,068 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.65, for a total value of $1,124,092.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 199,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,248,942.10. This trade represents a 4.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Morgan Stanley from $150.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price 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. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $130.50.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $116.19 on Wednesday. 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $116.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $124.71. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $90.55 and a 52 week high of $142.03. The company has a market cap of $187.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.63, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.30.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.39. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business had revenue of $17.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.81 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.02 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.18%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.43%.

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.