Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Shares Bought by CreativeOne Wealth LLC

CreativeOne Wealth LLC increased its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 121.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 16,591 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,090 shares during the quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,729,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 382.4% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,597,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $166,555,000 after buying an additional 1,266,600 shares in the last quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 7,285.8% in the third quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 169,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $17,654,000 after buying an additional 167,064 shares in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 73,872 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,700,000 after purchasing an additional 6,303 shares in the last quarter. Cadence Bank acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $230,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 28,723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,994,000 after purchasing an additional 721 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total transaction of $7,150,200.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 138,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,488,718.71. The trade was a 30.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on MS shares. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research note on Friday, November 15th. HSBC lowered Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $118.00.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $131.21 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $118.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $106.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. The company has a market cap of $211.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.34. Morgan Stanley has a 12-month low of $76.33 and a 12-month high of $136.24.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $15.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 10.64%. Equities research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 7.32 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 56.32%.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

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.