Empirical Finance LLC Sells 9,916 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Empirical Finance LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 14.4% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 58,732 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 9,916 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $12,277,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MS. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter valued at approximately $78,825,883,310. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 20,805.5% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 374,314,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $78,246,626,000 after acquiring an additional 372,523,624 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at $2,736,648,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,040,227,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 29.1% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,917,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,648,354,000 after purchasing an additional 3,364,080 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on MS shares. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Monday, July 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $183.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $224.75.

More Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is reportedly among the leading candidates for a senior role on a potential Anthropic initial public offering. A transaction of that scale could generate meaningful advisory and underwriting fees, although the IPO remains prospective. Morgan Stanley, Goldman near top roles on Anthropic’s $2tn IPO
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s research team continues to highlight opportunities in artificial-intelligence adopters and selected Indian equities, signaling potentially favorable conditions for its equity-research, sales and trading, and investment-banking franchises. Morgan Stanley market leaders outlook
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is hosting or participating in several upcoming corporate and healthcare conferences. These events may create opportunities for client engagement and deal flow, but the announcements do not immediately change the firm’s earnings outlook.
• Negative Sentiment: Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch recruited a Morgan Stanley advisor team overseeing approximately $1.2 billion, alongside advisors from Truist and Wells Fargo. The departure could pressure Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management assets, revenue, and retention metrics, although the direct earnings impact is uncertain. Merrill Lynch poaches Morgan Stanley team
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts warn that capital-markets momentum is fading in the third quarter, raising the risk of uneven results for large banks including Morgan Stanley. Slower deal activity, trading volumes, or issuance could weigh on near-term investment-banking and markets revenue. Capital markets momentum fades

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock traded down $1.41 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $216.31. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,454,304 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,229,787. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $148.35 and a 12 month high of $232.25. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $215.81 and a 200 day moving average of $197.19. The company has a market capitalization of $341.18 billion, a PE ratio of 17.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 15.65%.Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.13 EPS. Analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Friday, July 31st were given a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 31st. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. This is an increase from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 37.19%.

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

Morgan Stanley 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.