OneAscent Family Office LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley $MS

OneAscent Family Office LLC lessened its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 47.3% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,996 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,792 shares during the quarter. OneAscent Family Office LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $281,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 6.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,769,345 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,740,149,000 after buying an additional 7,636,547 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the first quarter valued at $767,506,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 21.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 17,056,916 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,990,030,000 after purchasing an additional 2,989,122 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 2nd quarter worth $343,236,000. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 99.9% during the 1st quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE now owns 3,111,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $363,075,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555,015 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on MS. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $176.00 to $184.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Citigroup raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $168.23.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Morgan Stanley stock opened at $165.20 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $157.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $142.44. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $94.33 and a 52 week high of $167.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $263.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.94, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.07 by $0.73. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 16.55% and a net margin of 13.85%.The company had revenue of $18.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.88 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st will be given a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Edward Pick sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.34, for a total value of $16,434,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 574,986 shares in the company, valued at approximately $94,493,199.24. This represents a 14.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Morgan Stanley Company 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.