Confluence Wealth Services Inc. Has $955,000 Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley $MS

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. lifted its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 150.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,568 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,747 shares during the quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $955,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MS. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,736,648,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,917,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,648,354,000 after buying an additional 3,364,080 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 142.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,122,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $511,723,000 after buying an additional 1,833,844 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,253,554,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361,940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2,332.9% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,406,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $249,710,000 after acquiring an additional 1,348,683 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. HSBC increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $190.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $183.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. CICC Research raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Two 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $224.75.

Trending Headlines about Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan increased their holdings of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs during the second quarter and added exposure to Solana and XRP products. The activity reinforces Morgan Stanley’s expansion into digital-asset products, which could support future fee and client-asset growth. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan load up on crypto ETFs
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is among five banks advising Carlyle-backed Quest Global on a potential India IPO of up to $1 billion. The mandate could generate advisory and underwriting fees while highlighting the firm’s international capital-markets franchise. Quest Global selects banks for India IPO
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group raised its earnings estimates for Morgan Stanley, providing a supportive analyst signal following the company’s strong recent quarterly results. Erste Group lifts Morgan Stanley earnings estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley adopted a more constructive view of U.S. IT hardware, citing “chipflation” and faster enterprise spending. The research may benefit the firm’s advisory and trading activity, but it is not a direct change to Morgan Stanley’s earnings outlook. Morgan Stanley turns bullish on IT hardware
• Negative Sentiment: A critical report on Morgan Stanley’s direct-lending business raised concerns about recent results and credit-market risks. Although details were limited, the negative coverage may weigh on sentiment toward the firm’s private-credit operations. Morgan Stanley direct lending results

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 0.5%

NYSE:MS opened at $217.31 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 12-month low of $141.03 and a 12-month high of $232.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $342.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.22. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $216.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $193.00.

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

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 31st were paid a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 31st. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, June 24th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding 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 generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.