Soltis Investment Advisors LLC Purchases 2,094 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Soltis Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 64.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,094 shares during the period. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $753,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on MS. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Barclays boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $183.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $168.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other news, CEO Edward Pick sold 100,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.34, for a total transaction of $16,434,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 574,986 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $94,493,199.24. The trade was a 14.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock opened at $163.54 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $259.92 billion, a PE ratio of 16.77, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $157.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $142.59. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $94.33 and a 1 year high of $167.13.

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

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 31st will be issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a 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%.

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.