Forte Capital LLC ADV Purchases 130 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Forte Capital LLC ADV increased its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,685 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Forte Capital LLC ADV’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $589,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. ING Groep NV lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 77.5% in the 4th quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 56,065 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,048,000 after acquiring an additional 24,477 shares during the last quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC now owns 11,202 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,408,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 67.8% in the 4th quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 8,203 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,031,000 after acquiring an additional 3,315 shares during the last quarter. First Bank & Trust lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 410.9% in the 4th quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 12,589 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,583,000 after acquiring an additional 10,125 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advyzon Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $528,000. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on MS. HSBC cut Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $128.00 to $131.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Hsbc Global Res cut Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of MS stock opened at $131.60 on Friday. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $132.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $119.77. Morgan Stanley has a 12-month low of $84.43 and a 12-month high of $142.03. The company has a market cap of $212.02 billion, a PE ratio of 16.57, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.37.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 25.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were given a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.60%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total value of $2,380,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 81,440 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,076,654.40. This represents a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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.

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.