Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC Has $1.27 Million Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,072 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 271 shares during the period. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,266,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,240,729 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,621,140,000 after acquiring an additional 269,633 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,404,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,335,495,000 after purchasing an additional 590,872 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,597,493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,029,970,000 after purchasing an additional 212,551 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.8% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,454,177 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $881,263,000 after purchasing an additional 385,780 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 75.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,850,848 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $881,493,000 after buying an additional 3,369,520 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $146.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.40.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 1.5 %

MS opened at $137.78 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $128.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $113.31. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $83.09 and a 1-year high of $138.08. The stock has a market cap of $221.97 billion, a PE ratio of 20.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $15.38 billion for 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 expect that Morgan Stanley will post 7.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.32%.

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.