Copley Financial Group Inc. Takes $641,000 Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 6,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $641,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the third quarter valued at $730,000. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 20.5% during the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 35,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,680,000 after buying an additional 6,000 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 75.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,850,848 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $881,493,000 after buying an additional 3,369,520 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 9.2% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 59,758 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,229,000 after buying an additional 5,024 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 6.4% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 85,446 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,907,000 after buying an additional 5,135 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS traded down $0.67 on Friday, reaching $127.24. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 355,103 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,992,680. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $83.09 and a 52-week high of $136.24. The company has a market cap of $204.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.47, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $123.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $108.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $15.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 10.64% and a return on equity of 12.58%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 7.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were given a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.91%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.32%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MS. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $121.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total value of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 138,363 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,488,718.71. The trade was a 30.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.