Baer Investment Advisory LLC Acquires Shares of 2,642 Morgan Stanley $MS

Baer Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,642 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $435,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,361,940 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 103,854,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $18,437,334,000 after buying an additional 539,544 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.6% during the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 27,321,214 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,343,523,000 after buying an additional 167,487 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,070,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,786,350,000 after buying an additional 534,708 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 25,018,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,441,505,000 after buying an additional 524,189 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citizens Jmp restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Evercore increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $196.00 to $214.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.50.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.2%

MS opened at $214.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $205.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $185.67. The company has a market capitalization of $337.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.41, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.23. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $135.26 and a 52 week high of $230.47.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.02 by $0.41. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 17.70% and a net margin of 14.65%.The business had revenue of $20.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.60 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 11.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.23%.

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, June 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 51,668 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.59, for a total value of $9,744,068.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 282,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,209,159.78. This represents a 15.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.24, for a total transaction of $2,779,935.60. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 365,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,224,370.48. The trade was a 3.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 77,476 shares of company stock worth $14,644,762 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

More Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley won conditional OCC approval for a national digital asset trust bank, giving it a regulated path to offer crypto custody and related services to institutional clients.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary continues to highlight Morgan Stanley as a strong growth name, with Zacks pointing to the stock’s favorable growth profile and earnings-surprise history.
• Positive Sentiment: Another market note said Morgan Stanley paired its recent dividend increase with a $20 billion buyback, reinforcing capital-return strength and shareholder-friendly policies.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles compared Morgan Stanley with JPMorgan and other big banks, but these were mostly valuation/style discussions rather than direct new fundamental catalysts.
• Neutral Sentiment: One analyst note mentioned Morgan Stanley lowered its price target on EQT Corp., which is unrelated to MS’s own operations and is unlikely to be a major driver for Morgan Stanley shares.

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.