Compton Wealth Advisory Group LLC Grows Stock Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Compton Wealth Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 6.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,093 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 842 shares during the period. Compton Wealth Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,646,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 21,738 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,733,000 after purchasing an additional 693 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 7,754 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $975,000 after purchasing an additional 726 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 24,459 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,075,000 after purchasing an additional 990 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 97,023 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,198,000 after buying an additional 3,735 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Matrix Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,040,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total value of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 138,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,488,718.71. This trade represents a 30.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $125.80.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of MS traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $123.25. 1,672,453 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,291,589. 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 has a 12-month low of $83.09 and a 12-month high of $136.24. The company has a market cap of $198.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $128.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $112.63.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.31. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 10.64%. The business had revenue of $15.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.27 billion. Research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were issued a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.00%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.32%.

Morgan Stanley 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.