Hilltop Holdings Inc. Sells 45,873 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Hilltop Holdings Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 83.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 9,031 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 45,873 shares during the period. Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,486,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,736,648,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,917,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,648,354,000 after buying an additional 3,364,080 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 142.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,122,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $511,723,000 after buying an additional 1,833,844 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,253,554,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361,940 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in 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. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

More Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s recent earnings results were strong, with the firm beating estimates on both EPS and revenue and posting robust year-over-year growth, which supports the stock’s longer-term fundamental case.
• Positive Sentiment: The company continues to receive constructive Wall Street commentary, including a “Moderate Buy” consensus and recent bullish analyst coverage tied to its earnings power and capital markets franchise.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent headlines also pointed to Morgan Stanley’s wealth management unit attracting new assets tied to SpaceX IPO interest, which reinforces the strength of its wealth and investment management businesses.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several unrelated market stories involving Morgan Stanley analyst calls on other stocks, plus broader AI/capex and earnings-driven volatility across large-cap tech and financials, may be influencing sentiment around MS indirectly.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of MS opened at $214.11 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $337.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $213.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $189.97. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $136.17 and a 12 month high of $232.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.51% and a net margin of 15.65%.The company’s revenue was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.13 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 12.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

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

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback 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 reacquire up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $214.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Two equities research 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 assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $224.50.

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.