Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Cuts Stock Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio cut its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 2.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 461,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 9,680 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $75,990,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MS. Purpose Unlimited Inc. purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Motiv8 Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $211.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Argus upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Freedom Capital upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $224.50.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $215.26 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $213.50 and its 200 day moving average is $189.80. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $136.17 and a 52 week high of $232.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52. The company has a market cap of $339.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.40, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.23.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. The business had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.51%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.13 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 12.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, June 24th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be paid a dividend of $1.15 per share. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 32.34%.

Key Stories Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s own analysts highlighted supportive themes in other names, including stronger earnings, M&A momentum, and constructive AI/cloud spending trends, which reinforces the firm’s research credibility and may help sentiment around MS’s advisory and markets businesses.
• Positive Sentiment: The bank has been cited in recent commentary about a potential M&A boom and a strong first half for Wall Street, which could support expectations for investment banking and deal-related fees at Morgan Stanley (MS). Morgan Stanley stock in focus as Goldman Sachs predicts an M&A boom
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley was also mentioned as part of broader market coverage around strong U.S. banking results and analyst upgrades, but these items were not direct company-specific catalysts for MS.
• Negative Sentiment: The stock has faced some pressure from investors focusing more on what Morgan Stanley is saying about the market than on MS itself, especially AI spending, which is seen as huge but potentially less immediately profitable for U.S. investors.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent industry-wide risk-off trading and weakness across mega-cap tech and the Nasdaq have also weighed on financial stocks, limiting upside in Morgan Stanley (MS) despite its strong fundamentals.

About Morgan Stanley

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.