Wintrust Investments LLC Sells 635 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Wintrust Investments LLC reduced its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 45.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 773 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 635 shares during the quarter. Wintrust Investments LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $97,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peoples Bank KS acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Planning Capital Management Corp lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 115.1% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth about $48,000. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares in the company, valued at $11,076,654.40. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of 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 raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $111.49 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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $131.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $122.14. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $85.01 and a 1-year high of $142.03. The stock has a market cap of $179.81 billion, a PE ratio of 14.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. The company had revenue of $16.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.13 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.32%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 46.60%.

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.