Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Has $2.85 Million Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley $MS

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 38.0% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,651 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,756 shares during the quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $2,854,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,782 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,607,000 after buying an additional 1,185 shares in the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 69.0% during the second quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 8,964 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,263,000 after buying an additional 3,661 shares in the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 90.9% in the second quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,148 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,378,000 after acquiring an additional 7,688 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 6.3% in the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 263,575 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,127,000 after acquiring an additional 15,623 shares during the period. Finally, Jupiter Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 7.8% in the second quarter. Jupiter Wealth Management LLC now owns 52,825 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,805,000 after acquiring an additional 3,807 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $224.75.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $217.28 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $139.41 and a 52 week high of $232.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $342.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.57, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.22. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $215.82 and its 200 day moving average is $191.29.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.51%. The business had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.13 earnings per share. Morgan Stanley’s revenue was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be paid a dividend of $1.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 31st. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, June 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

More Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain cautiously optimistic on Morgan Stanley after the company outperformed the broader market over the past year. The firm’s wealth-management scale, capital-markets exposure and earnings momentum remain key parts of the bullish thesis. Are Wall Street Analysts Predicting Morgan Stanley Stock Will Climb or Sink?
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management strategy is receiving support from the expansion of cryptocurrency offerings, which could strengthen its broader “wealth-management flywheel” by attracting assets, increasing client engagement and creating additional fee opportunities. Morgan Stanley: Why Crypto Strengthens The Wealth Management Flywheel
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE platform reported monthly sector-rotation data, highlighting client trading activity across major U.S. equity sectors. The release provides market insight but does not materially change Morgan Stanley’s earnings outlook. E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley Releases Monthly Sector Rotation Study
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader Morgan Stanley research remains supportive of technology, cloud spending and AI-related infrastructure, which could benefit the firm’s investment-banking and advisory activity if elevated dealmaking continues. However, these are industry-level themes rather than new company-specific catalysts. Blackstone Has Pitched Mega Debt Package for Anthropic Chip Deal
• Negative Sentiment: The analyst outlook is not uniformly bullish: “cautiously optimistic” commentary suggests valuation and market-cycle risks remain, particularly if capital-markets activity, trading revenue or asset-management inflows weaken.

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.