Retirement Systems of Alabama Trims Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Retirement Systems of Alabama trimmed its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 937,020 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 67,932 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $97,675,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,240,729 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,621,140,000 after purchasing an additional 269,633 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 2.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,404,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,335,495,000 after buying an additional 590,872 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 12,875,677 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,251,387,000 after acquiring an additional 303,654 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.0% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,597,493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,029,970,000 after acquiring an additional 212,551 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,834,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $858,573,000 after acquiring an additional 242,896 shares in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total value of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 138,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,488,718.71. This represents a 30.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Hsbc Global Res cut Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $121.80.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of MS stock opened at $128.27 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $123.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $108.19. The stock has a market cap of $206.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $83.09 and a 12 month high of $136.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 10.64%. The company had revenue of $15.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.27 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.88%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.32%.

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.