Community Trust & Investment Co. Sells 5,918 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Community Trust & Investment Co. reduced its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 18.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,954 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,918 shares during the quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $3,656,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 982,218 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $141,577,000 after purchasing an additional 12,298 shares during the last quarter. Atticus Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 384.9% in the 2nd quarter. Atticus Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,122 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $581,000 after buying an additional 3,272 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 13,524 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,914,000 after buying an additional 1,126 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 889,963 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $125,360,000 after buying an additional 58,262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Compton Wealth Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Compton Wealth Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,989,000 after buying an additional 708 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $130.00 target price (up previously from $125.00) on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $127.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.92.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

MS stock opened at $157.28 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $146.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $131.02. The company has a market capitalization of $251.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.81, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.33. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $94.33 and a 52-week high of $158.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78.

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

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

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

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, July 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 8.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Sharon Yeshaya sold 25,583 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.81, for a total transaction of $3,576,759.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 128,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,988,234.22. The trade was a 16.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 43,566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.97, for a total transaction of $6,141,499.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 294,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,480,422.50. This represents a 12.90% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 148,149 shares of company stock worth $20,841,628. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Morgan Stanley

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.