Good Life Advisors LLC Buys 931 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Good Life Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 10.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,513 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 931 shares during the quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $992,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 28,481,070 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,681,778,000 after purchasing an additional 3,981,528 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 12,875,677 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,251,387,000 after buying an additional 303,654 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 2.0% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,597,493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,029,970,000 after buying an additional 212,551 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,834,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $858,573,000 after buying an additional 242,896 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,151,492 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $672,969,000 after acquiring an additional 57,104 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $95.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $107.56.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In related news, insider Mandell Crawley sold 3,500 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.25, for a total value of $368,375.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,224 shares in the company, valued at $4,549,326. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of MS opened at $119.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.96, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $194.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a 50-day moving average of $102.86 and a 200 day moving average of $99.10. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $69.42 and a 1-year high of $121.45.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $15.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.32 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 10.17%. Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.24 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 6.95 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st will be issued a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is 67.40%.

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.