Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Sells 102,301 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lessened its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 77.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 102,301 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $5,213,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blue Water Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth about $643,000. Phoenix Financial Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 21,282 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,778,000 after acquiring an additional 705 shares in the last quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 134.4% in the fourth quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC now owns 22,703 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,030,000 after acquiring an additional 13,019 shares in the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 550.1% in the fourth quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 193,205 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,300,000 after acquiring an additional 163,487 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2,332.9% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,406,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $249,710,000 after acquiring an additional 1,348,683 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Key Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Seeking Alpha flagged that Morgan Stanley was upgraded to Buy after its strong first-quarter results, reinforcing the view that recent earnings momentum is still supporting the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage also noted that Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) ahead of the GTA VI release, underscoring continued active equity-research influence and a generally constructive tone from the bank’s analysts. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s own recent stock commentary said MS has delivered a strong one-year rally, with investors still debating valuation versus earnings power rather than reacting to any single new company-specific surprise. Article Title

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 51,668 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.59, for a total transaction of $9,744,068.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 282,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,209,159.78. This represents a 15.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.24, for a total value of $2,779,935.60. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 365,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $69,224,370.48. This trade represents a 3.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 77,476 shares of company stock worth $14,644,762. 0.17% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 0.3%

NYSE:MS opened at $201.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. The company has a market cap of $317.32 billion, a PE ratio of 18.22, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.22. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $123.88 and a 52-week high of $203.09. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $179.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.01.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.02 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $20.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.23 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 17.70% and a net margin of 14.65%.Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.60 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 11.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.23%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on MS shares. Daiwa Securities Group increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Dbs Bank increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $185.00 to $220.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Wolfe Research lowered their price target on Morgan Stanley from $221.00 to $197.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $173.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.95.

Morgan Stanley 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.