E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB Acquires 2,510 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 6.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 42,627 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,510 shares during the quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $8,911,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,782 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,607,000 after purchasing an additional 1,185 shares in the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 69.0% during the 2nd 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 holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 90.9% during the 2nd quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,148 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,378,000 after buying an additional 7,688 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 263,575 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,127,000 after buying an additional 15,623 shares during the period. Finally, Jupiter Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 7.8% during the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Wealth Management LLC now owns 52,825 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,805,000 after buying an additional 3,807 shares during the period. 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: Morgan Stanley launched a $1.5 trillion innovation and infrastructure initiative designed to support investment in technology, advanced manufacturing, energy and other strategic sectors. The effort could strengthen the firm’s long-term investment-banking, asset-management and advisory opportunities. Morgan Stanley starts $1.5T innovation infrastructure initiative
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise to Overweight and set a $69 price target, citing improving enterprise-infrastructure growth, earnings potential and cash generation. The call highlights the bank’s ability to generate advisory and trading activity around technology and infrastructure themes. Hewlett Packard Stock Rises After Morgan Stanley Upgrade
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley continues expanding its fixed-income activity through new and recently completed medium-term note offerings carrying coupons of roughly 4.5% to 5.2% and maturities from 2029 through 2036. The issuance supports funding and liquidity but may keep investors focused on borrowing costs and whether the stock’s valuation already reflects strong earnings. Morgan Stanley expands fixed income activity
• Neutral Sentiment: KBRA assigned preliminary ratings to ten classes of certificates in a $418.1 million Morgan Stanley-sponsored residential mortgage-backed securities transaction. The deal demonstrates continued securitization activity, although its meaningful non-prime mortgage exposure could draw additional attention to credit quality and market-risk management. KBRA assigns preliminary ratings to Morgan Stanley mortgage trust
• Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley-backed renewable developer PNE said potential buyers appear unwilling to meet its market valuation, casting doubt on whether a sale will occur. While the issue is not central to Morgan Stanley’s earnings, it could modestly weigh on sentiment toward the firm’s involvement in the transaction. Morgan Stanley-backed PNE sale prospects unclear

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on MS shares. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Daiwa Securities Group raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. 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. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $243.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $224.75.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $214.56 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $338.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.35, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $141.03 and a fifty-two week high of $232.25. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $216.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $192.08.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.13 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

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

Morgan Stanley Company 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.