TCW Group Inc. Has $77.04 Million Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

TCW Group Inc. lessened its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 2.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 739,055 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 19,268 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $77,039,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $242,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 96.6% in the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 34,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,578,000 after purchasing an additional 16,865 shares in the last quarter. Fortem Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 6.4% during the third quarter. Fortem Financial Group LLC now owns 4,181 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $436,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 4.8% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 61,101 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,430,000 after purchasing an additional 2,826 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 21.9% in the 3rd quarter. Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,610 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $585,000 after buying an additional 1,009 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MS. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $121.80.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of MS stock opened at $126.80 on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley has a 12-month low of $81.96 and a 12-month high of $136.24. The company has a market capitalization of $204.27 billion, a PE ratio of 19.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $122.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $107.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $15.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 10.64%. As a group, analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 7.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were given a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.92%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is 56.32%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total transaction of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 138,363 shares in the company, valued at $16,488,718.71. This represents a 30.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

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.