Virtus Advisers LLC Invests $296,000 in Morgan Stanley $MS

Virtus Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $296,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MS. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,234,883,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the 1st quarter worth $767,506,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 21.2% in 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 during the period. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the second quarter valued at about $343,236,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on MS shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Barclays raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $183.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $173.38.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $169.75 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $161.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $148.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $94.33 and a 52-week high of $171.77. The company has a market cap of $269.79 billion, a PE ratio of 17.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.33.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly 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. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 16.55% and a net margin of 13.85%.The firm had revenue of $17.98 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.88 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 31st were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.03%.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other news, CEO Edward Pick sold 100,000 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 574,986 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $94,493,199.24. The trade was a 14.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.