St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC Invests $3.44 Million in Morgan Stanley $MS

St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 16,065 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,437,000. Morgan Stanley accounts for about 1.8% of St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Motiv8 Investments LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Purpose Unlimited Inc. acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1,855.6% in the 4th quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 176 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on MS shares. Zacks Research cut Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Freedom Capital raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Argus boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $224.75.

Morgan Stanley News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s possible billion-dollar regional hub in downtown Dallas received approval for a key planning element, supporting the firm’s long-term growth and talent-retention strategy in the region. Morgan Stanley’s possible downtown hub gets sign approval
• Positive Sentiment: Wealth management remains an important stabilizing factor for Morgan Stanley, providing recurring fee revenue and diversification from more market-sensitive investment-banking and trading operations. Why Is Wealth Management Anchoring Morgan Stanley
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views remain mixed, suggesting investors may be reassessing Morgan Stanley’s valuation after its strong earnings performance. The company previously reported quarterly EPS of $3.46 and revenue of $21.35 billion, both above consensus estimates.
• Negative Sentiment: A Morgan Stanley-led banking group is reportedly preparing to sell roughly $15 billion of debt connected to a Google-backed Anthropic data center. The transaction could generate fees, but investors may be concerned about exposure to heavily leveraged AI infrastructure financing and the possibility that banks are transferring risk to the market. Morgan Stanley-led banks to offload debt tied to Anthropic data center

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $213.99 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65. The company has a market capitalization of $337.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.22. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $140.60 and a twelve month high of $232.25. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $216.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $191.66.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. The firm had revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 15.65%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be given a $1.15 dividend. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 31st. This is an increase from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, June 24th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

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.