MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC Invests $51,000 in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 544 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $51,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MS. CGC Financial Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 5,200.0% during the fourth quarter. CGC Financial Services LLC now owns 265 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 77.3% during the third quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 328 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 123.2% during the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Front Row Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 220.6% during the third quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC now owns 452 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 311 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on MS shares. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $101.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $91.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $98.30.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE MS traded up $1.15 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $94.79. The stock had a trading volume of 5,103,496 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,465,847. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $90.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $86.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $69.42 and a twelve month high of $95.57. The firm has a market cap of $154.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.41.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.33. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 9.57% and a return on equity of 10.87%. The company had revenue of $15.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.70 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 6.84 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.59%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 61.93%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 26,655 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.19, for a total value of $2,324,049.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 286,835 shares in the company, valued at $25,009,143.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 26,655 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.19, for a total value of $2,324,049.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 286,835 shares in the company, valued at $25,009,143.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.21, for a total transaction of $9,021,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 414,870 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,425,422.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 237,855 shares of company stock worth $21,084,057. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

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.