Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. Has $1.07 Million Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. lowered its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 2.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 236 shares during the quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,073,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital International Investors increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 16.3% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 28,481,070 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,681,778,000 after acquiring an additional 3,981,528 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 600.8% during the first quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,301,835 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $122,581,000 after buying an additional 1,116,058 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the first quarter worth about $87,558,000. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 433.4% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 779,451 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $73,392,000 after acquiring an additional 633,319 shares during the period. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $43,850,000. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 138,363 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,488,718.71. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Morgan Stanley from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.24.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of MS stock traded up $1.09 on Friday, hitting $129.53. The stock had a trading volume of 6,979,341 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,605,413. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $73.96 and a twelve month high of $133.52. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $109.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $102.36. The firm has a market cap of $208.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.72, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.34.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 10.64%. As a group, analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 7.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.32%.

Morgan Stanley Company 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.