FUKOKU MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE Co Sells 2,760 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

FUKOKU MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE Co lessened its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 46.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,237 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,760 shares during the period. FUKOKU MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE Co’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $533,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MS. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at $2,736,648,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $2,648,354,000 after purchasing an additional 3,364,080 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 142.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,833,844 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 valued at $21,253,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361,940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake 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 valued at $249,710,000 after buying an additional 1,348,683 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Research cut Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Bank of America upped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $194.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. HSBC lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $153.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $218.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.50.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

MS stock opened at $214.27 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $205.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $185.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52. The firm has a market cap of $337.96 billion, a PE ratio of 19.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.23. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $135.26 and a 1-year high of $230.47.

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

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

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

Morgan Stanley declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 purchase 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 shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 11,118 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.75, for a total value of $2,120,758.50. Following the transaction, the insider owned 169,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,313,622.25. The trade was a 6.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 365,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $69,224,370.48. This trade represents a 3.86% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 77,476 shares of company stock worth $14,644,762. 0.17% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Morgan Stanley

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.