Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Grows Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 6.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,837 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 574 shares during the period. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $824,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MS. NBW Capital LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. NBW Capital LLC now owns 3,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $258,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. M&R Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. M&R Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,020 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $188,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 5.0% in the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 2,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $220,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Platte River Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 3.4% in the third quarter. Platte River Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,995 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $326,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Corton Capital Inc. lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 2.0% in the third quarter. Corton Capital Inc. now owns 6,629 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $541,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In related news, CFO Raja Akram sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.56, for a total transaction of $584,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 97,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,158,297.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Raja Akram sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.56, for a total transaction of $584,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 97,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,158,297.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.13, for a total transaction of $841,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 323,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,215,213.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 208,155 shares of company stock valued at $18,149,314. 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. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $109.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Cfra boosted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $97.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. TheStreet upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $95.66.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 2.5 %

MS stock opened at $89.13 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $144.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.43. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $69.42 and a 52 week high of $95.57. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $88.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $84.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $15.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 9.49% and a return on equity of 10.36%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.70 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 6.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.