DJE Kapital AG Grows Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley $MS

DJE Kapital AG raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 55.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 513,855 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 182,784 shares during the quarter. Morgan Stanley comprises about 2.5% of DJE Kapital AG’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. DJE Kapital AG’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $91,871,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Olistico Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1,855.6% during the fourth quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 176 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 51,668 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.59, for a total transaction of $9,744,068.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 282,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,209,159.78. This trade represents a 15.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.24, for a total transaction of $2,779,935.60. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 365,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $69,224,370.48. This represents a 3.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 77,476 shares of company stock valued at $14,644,762. 0.17% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock opened at $212.74 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $335.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.27, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $192.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $180.61. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $128.81 and a 52 week high of $219.16.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.02 by $0.41. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 14.65% and a return on equity of 17.70%. The firm had revenue of $20.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.23 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.60 EPS. Morgan Stanley’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 11.85 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were given a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.23%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on MS. Evercore increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $218.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.95.

Key Morgan Stanley News

Here are the key news stories impacting Morgan Stanley this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is being highlighted as a likely beneficiary of a coming wave of AI-related IPOs, with reports saying the bank could earn significant underwriting, trading, and advisory fees from deals such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX. Barrons AI IPO article
• Positive Sentiment: Another report said Morgan Stanley’s leadership is “wide awake” to M&A opportunities, with wealth management and asset management cited as areas for potential inorganic growth, which supports optimism around longer-term expansion. Morgan Stanley M&A opportunities article
• Positive Sentiment: The bank also announced it is expanding AI access on its workplace wealth platform, allowing clients’ AI agents to interact with stock-plan tools, a move that could deepen client relationships and improve the digital wealth-management offering. Morgan Stanley AI access article
• Neutral Sentiment: Additional commentary on Morgan Stanley’s role in upcoming IPO activity and broader market momentum has kept the stock in focus, but these items are more thematic than directly company-specific. Morgan Stanley IPO realities article

About Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1935 by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley, the company provides a broad range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individual investors. Leadership has been guided by a senior executive team and board of directors; James P. Gorman has served as the company’s chief executive and chairman in recent years.

The firm’s primary business activities are organized around three principal businesses: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management.