Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. Makes New $5.69 Million Investment in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 45,228 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,686,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peoples Bank KS purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Planning Capital Management Corp raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 115.1% in the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth $48,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total transaction of $2,380,175.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,076,654.40. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total value 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. The trade was a 6.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Barclays raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 2.2 %

NYSE MS opened at $111.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $179.81 billion, a PE ratio of 14.04, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $85.01 and a 1 year high of $142.03. The business’s 50-day moving average is $131.51 and its 200 day moving average is $122.14.

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

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were given a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.32%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 46.60%.

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.