American Century Companies Inc. Has $224.88 Million Holdings in Morgan Stanley $MS

Key Points

• American Century Companies Inc. has reduced its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 17.3%, selling 404,435 shares, leaving it with approximately 1,927,525 shares valued at $224,884,000.
• Several institutions, including Vanguard Group Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., have increased their stakes in Morgan Stanley, with Vanguard now owning nearly 117.8 million shares, equating to a value of around $13.7 billion.
• Morgan Stanley announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to $1.00 per share and has authorized a $20 billion stock buyback plan, indicating confidence in the company's valuation.

American Century Companies Inc. lessened its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Free Report) by 17.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,927,525 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 404,435 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.12% of Morgan Stanley worth $224,884,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 6.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,769,345 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $13,740,149,000 after acquiring an additional 7,636,547 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 44.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 21,794,873 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,740,051,000 after acquiring an additional 6,744,333 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the first quarter valued at about $767,506,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 21.2% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 17,056,916 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,990,030,000 after acquiring an additional 2,989,122 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 12,318.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,750,845 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $320,941,000 after acquiring an additional 2,728,693 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $127.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $136.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $130.00 target price (up from $125.00) on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $138.25.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

NYSE MS traded up $0.2730 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $144.3430. 2,499,636 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,654,715. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30. The company has a market cap of $230.42 billion, a PE ratio of 16.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.32. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $94.09 and a fifty-two week high of $149.08. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $140.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $128.83.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $16.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.15 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 13.06%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.82 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 31st. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. Morgan Stanley's payout ratio is presently 45.30%.

Morgan Stanley announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, July 1st that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 8.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 29,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.13, for a total value of $4,092,770.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 399,105 shares of the company's stock, valued at $56,325,688.65. This represents a 6.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael A. Pizzi sold 18,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.62, for a total value of $2,531,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 136,407 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,181,552.34. This represents a 11.66% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 148,149 shares of company stock valued at $20,841,628. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company's stock.

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.