Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. Has $1.08 Million Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,358 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,019 shares during the quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,080,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 16.3% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 28,481,070 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,681,778,000 after purchasing an additional 3,981,528 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 12,875,677 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,251,387,000 after purchasing an additional 303,654 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.0% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,597,493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,029,970,000 after purchasing an additional 212,551 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 2.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,834,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $858,573,000 after purchasing an additional 242,896 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.8% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,151,492 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $672,969,000 after buying an additional 57,104 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MS has been the topic of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. HSBC raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut Morgan Stanley from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.24.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $133.52 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.80. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $74.55 and a 52-week high of $133.99. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $109.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $102.48. The firm has a market cap of $215.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.32, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.34.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $15.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 10.64% and a return on equity of 12.58%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 7.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st will be issued a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.77%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total value of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 138,363 shares in the company, valued at $16,488,718.71. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Morgan Stanley

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.