Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $109.97 Million Stock Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 14.8% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 526,074 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 67,900 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $109,971,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Financial Management Professionals Inc. raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.6% in the second quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 8,245 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,724,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 12.3% in the 4th quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 502 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $89,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC now owns 4,216 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $748,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 4,546 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $748,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Finally, Gallagher Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Gallagher Capital Advisors LLC now owns 10,098 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,837,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley launched a $1.5 trillion innovation and infrastructure initiative designed to support investment in technology, advanced manufacturing, energy and other strategic sectors. The effort could strengthen the firm’s long-term investment-banking, asset-management and advisory opportunities. Morgan Stanley starts $1.5T innovation infrastructure initiative
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise to Overweight and set a $69 price target, citing improving enterprise-infrastructure growth, earnings potential and cash generation. The call highlights the bank’s ability to generate advisory and trading activity around technology and infrastructure themes. Hewlett Packard Stock Rises After Morgan Stanley Upgrade
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley continues expanding its fixed-income activity through new and recently completed medium-term note offerings carrying coupons of roughly 4.5% to 5.2% and maturities from 2029 through 2036. The issuance supports funding and liquidity but may keep investors focused on borrowing costs and whether the stock’s valuation already reflects strong earnings. Morgan Stanley expands fixed income activity
• Neutral Sentiment: KBRA assigned preliminary ratings to ten classes of certificates in a $418.1 million Morgan Stanley-sponsored residential mortgage-backed securities transaction. The deal demonstrates continued securitization activity, although its meaningful non-prime mortgage exposure could draw additional attention to credit quality and market-risk management. KBRA assigns preliminary ratings to Morgan Stanley mortgage trust
• Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley-backed renewable developer PNE said potential buyers appear unwilling to meet its market valuation, casting doubt on whether a sale will occur. While the issue is not central to Morgan Stanley’s earnings, it could modestly weigh on sentiment toward the firm’s involvement in the transaction. Morgan Stanley-backed PNE sale prospects unclear

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $243.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $224.75.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of MS opened at $214.56 on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $141.03 and a 52 week high of $232.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $338.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.35, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $216.60 and a 200-day moving average of $192.08.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.57. The business had revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 15.65%.Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.13 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

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

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, June 24th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Morgan Stanley 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.