Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC Sells 451 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 24,889 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 451 shares during the period. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $3,506,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 111.0% during the 1st quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 211 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. Abound Wealth Management grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 58.5% during the 2nd quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the 1st quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Hopwood Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. now owns 264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MS. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $127.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $136.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $144.25.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of MS stock opened at $157.00 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $250.63 billion, a PE ratio of 17.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $149.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $133.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $94.33 and a 52-week high of $163.98.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $16.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.15 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 13.06%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.82 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were issued a $1.00 dividend. This is a boost from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 31st. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 45.30%.

Morgan Stanley declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Tuesday, July 1st that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 8.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 43,566 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.97, for a total transaction of $6,141,499.02. Following the transaction, the insider owned 294,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,480,422.50. This represents a 12.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Charles A. Smith sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.30, for a total value of $2,806,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 119,239 shares in the company, valued at $16,729,231.70. This represents a 14.36% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,149 shares of company stock worth $20,841,628 in the last ninety days. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.