1248 Management LLC Invests $118,000 in Morgan Stanley $MS

1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,009 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $118,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 111.0% during the first quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 211 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the first quarter worth about $27,000. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the first quarter worth about $30,000. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 50.0% during the first quarter. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. now owns 264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Erste Group Bank upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $130.00 target price (up previously from $125.00) on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $127.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $136.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $138.25.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Sharon Yeshaya sold 25,583 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.81, for a total transaction of $3,576,759.23. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 128,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,988,234.22. This trade represents a 16.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 29,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.13, for a total value of $4,092,770.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 399,105 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,325,688.65. This represents a 6.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,149 shares of company stock worth $20,841,628 over the last quarter. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of MS opened at $156.56 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $249.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.33. Morgan Stanley has a one year low of $94.33 and a one year high of $157.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $145.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $130.31.

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

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were issued 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 yield of 2.6%. This is a boost from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.30%.

Morgan Stanley announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, July 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to reacquire up to 8.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.