Fifth Third Bancorp Cuts Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Fifth Third Bancorp lessened its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,775,077 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 71,226 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $165,526,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at about $956,566,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 125,756.8% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,641,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $904,714,000 after purchasing an additional 10,632,735 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter worth about $477,765,000. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 1st quarter worth about $451,711,000. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 21.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,474,452 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,917,159,000 after purchasing an additional 4,098,577 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on MS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $87.00 price target (down from $94.00) on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. HSBC raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. TheStreet raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $94.45.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 0.7 %

MS traded up $0.66 during trading on Friday, hitting $94.16. The company had a trading volume of 6,707,703 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,969,877. The company has a market cap of $153.98 billion, a PE ratio of 18.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a 50-day moving average of $87.69 and a 200-day moving average of $84.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $69.42 and a 1-year high of $95.57.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $12.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.77 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 9.49% and a return on equity of 10.36%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.31 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 6.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 31st were issued a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, January 30th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.61%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.76%.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Raja Akram sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 97,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,158,297.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.13, for a total value of $841,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 323,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,215,213.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Raja Akram sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $8,158,297.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 208,155 shares of company stock valued at $18,149,314 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

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.