Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC Boosts Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 22.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 16,009 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,964 shares during the quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,868,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 110,132,798 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,845,895,000 after buying an additional 696,646 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,844,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,240,089,000 after acquiring an additional 604,024 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 25,561,560 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,213,599,000 after acquiring an additional 2,725,335 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,833,937 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,870,683,000 after acquiring an additional 428,956 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 44.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 21,794,873 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,740,051,000 after purchasing an additional 6,744,333 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MS shares. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $150.00 to $144.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Erste Group Bank raised Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Morgan Stanley from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $133.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Robert H. Herz sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.32, for a total value of $95,456.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 96,760 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,545,403.20. The trade was a 0.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $4,800,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 335,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,291,800. This represents a 10.64% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 50,868 shares of company stock worth $6,019,548. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 1.1%

MS stock opened at $130.87 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $121.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $125.14. The stock has a market cap of $209.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.48, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $90.94 and a twelve month high of $142.03.

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

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th were paid a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.83%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 43.43%.

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.