Foster & Motley Inc. Has $1.77 Million Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Foster & Motley Inc. lessened its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 7.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,052 shares during the quarter. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,770,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. DGS Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $554,000 after buying an additional 77 shares during the period. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,004 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $378,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,748 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 87 shares during the period. Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC now owns 2,697 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $339,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mason & Associates Inc raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Mason & Associates Inc now owns 3,177 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $399,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total transaction of $2,380,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,076,654.40. This represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total value of $1,783,811.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 197,444 shares in the company, valued at $26,891,872.80. The trade was a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 1.0 %

NYSE:MS opened at $140.05 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $83.09 and a 1 year high of $141.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. The stock has a market cap of $225.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.64, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.36. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $129.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $115.67.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. The firm had revenue of $16.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.13 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 25.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.49 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 given a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.64%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.60%.

Morgan Stanley 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.