Lyell Wealth Management LP Grows Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Lyell Wealth Management LP lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 8.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 91,524 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,270 shares during the quarter. Lyell Wealth Management LP’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $8,895,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,512,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $244,184,000 after purchasing an additional 99,480 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 352,518 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,261,000 after purchasing an additional 52,429 shares in the last quarter. Stolper Co lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Stolper Co now owns 24,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,409,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 166,064 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,140,000 after purchasing an additional 2,436 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1ST Source Bank lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 15,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,550,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $99.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.73.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $98.25 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $159.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.90, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.37. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $69.42 and a 12 month high of $109.11. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $100.55 and its 200 day moving average is $96.33. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.96.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $15.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.32 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 10.17% and a return on equity of 11.85%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.24 EPS. Research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 7.03 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st were given a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 31st. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.77%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.40%.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In other news, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 200,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.06, for a total transaction of $21,012,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 150,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,759,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 200,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.06, for a total transaction of $21,012,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 150,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,759,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Mandell Crawley sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.25, for a total transaction of $368,375.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,224 shares in the company, valued at $4,549,326. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 252,000 shares of company stock valued at $26,546,370. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.