Woodley Farra Manion Portfolio Management Inc. Sells 44,692 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Woodley Farra Manion Portfolio Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 571,883 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 44,692 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley makes up about 4.3% of Woodley Farra Manion Portfolio Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Woodley Farra Manion Portfolio Management Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $90,906,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in MS. WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the second quarter valued at $28,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 65.2% during the 3rd quarter. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. now owns 185 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Compass Financial Services Inc purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 91.9% in the 3rd quarter. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC now owns 213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Howard Hughes Medical Institute acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter worth about $38,000. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Morgan Stanley News

Here are the key news stories impacting Morgan Stanley this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Quarterly results beat expectations. Q4 EPS and revenue topped consensus (EPS $2.68 vs. $2.28 est.; revenue ~$17.9B, +10% YoY), showing earnings leverage across the bank’s businesses — a clear fundamental positive for MS’s valuation and dividend/earnings outlook. Morgan Stanley Q4 2025 earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Product/fee moves may boost client activity. Morgan Stanley’s EquityZen unit cut transaction fees, which could increase retail/secondary-market flows and revenue over time if volume follows. EquityZen fee cuts (Reuters)
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic positioning around crypto, AI and securitization. Recent commentary/coverage highlights Morgan Stanley linking crypto, AI and securitization to its valuation story — signaling the firm is active in growth themes investors care about. Morgan Stanley connects crypto, AI (Yahoo)
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and research activity continues to be visible. Morgan Stanley research is issuing calls and price-target moves across many names (biology, retail, tech). That underlines the firm’s commercial and research footprint, which supports fee businesses but has limited immediate impact on MS equity. Example: Morgan Stanley analyst notes (TipRanks)
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional investing exposure (crypto-related). Filings show Morgan Stanley raised exposure to BitMine (BMNR) in Q4 — this highlights the firm’s client/investment activity in crypto-linked assets but can be read either way depending on outcomes. MS increases BMNR exposure (Cointelegraph)
• Negative Sentiment: Operating cash flow weakness. Despite reported profits, cash from operations swung materially negative in the quarter (reported by company filings), a metric investors watch for banks and wealth managers because it can signal balance-sheet or working-capital stress. Q4 results & cash flow (Quiver)
• Negative Sentiment: Reputational/legal headline: Epstein-related accounts. Reporting that Morgan Stanley opened accounts for Epstein trusts as late as 2019 is a reputational/legal overhang that can trigger investor caution and potential regulatory scrutiny. Epstein trusts accounts story (Yahoo)
• Negative Sentiment: Executive/insider selling noted. Recent filings show multiple insider sales among senior MS executives; while insider sales can be routine, clustered selling raises governance/near-term sentiment questions for some investors. (Also summarized in the Q4 release.) Insider activity in Q4 release

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.3%

NYSE MS traded up $0.47 on Friday, reaching $174.84. 333,968 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,447,669. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $180.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $165.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $277.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $94.33 and a fifty-two week high of $192.68.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.68 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.28 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $17.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.69 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 16.92% and a net margin of 14.09%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.22 EPS. Analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 30th were issued a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 39.18%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on MS. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $186.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $211.00 price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Dbs Bank upgraded Morgan Stanley to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $207.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $185.93.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Sharon Yeshaya sold 15,838 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.77, for a total value of $2,942,225.26. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 135,304 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,135,424.08. This represents a 10.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 30,330 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.62, for a total value of $5,569,194.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 280,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,501,921.22. The trade was a 9.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 129,191 shares of company stock worth $23,736,506 over the last ninety days. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1935 by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley, the company provides a broad range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individual investors. Leadership has been guided by a senior executive team and board of directors; James P. Gorman has served as the company’s chief executive and chairman in recent years.

The firm’s primary business activities are organized around three principal businesses: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management.