Capital Advisors Inc. OK Trims Stock Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

Capital Advisors Inc. OK trimmed its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Free Report) by 1.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 501,280 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 8,155 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley accounts for approximately 1.5% of Capital Advisors Inc. OK's holdings, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Capital Advisors Inc. OK's holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $104,788,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,736,648,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,917,776 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,648,354,000 after purchasing an additional 3,364,080 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 142.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,122,060 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $511,723,000 after purchasing an additional 1,833,844 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $21,253,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361,940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 2,332.9% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,406,495 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $249,710,000 after purchasing an additional 1,348,683 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Morgan Stanley

Here are the key news stories impacting Morgan Stanley this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan increased their holdings of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs during the second quarter and added exposure to Solana and XRP products. The activity reinforces Morgan Stanley’s expansion into digital-asset products, which could support future fee and client-asset growth. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan load up on crypto ETFs
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is among five banks advising Carlyle-backed Quest Global on a potential India IPO of up to $1 billion. The mandate could generate advisory and underwriting fees while highlighting the firm’s international capital-markets franchise. Quest Global selects banks for India IPO
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group raised its earnings estimates for Morgan Stanley, providing a supportive analyst signal following the company’s strong recent quarterly results. Erste Group lifts Morgan Stanley earnings estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley adopted a more constructive view of U.S. IT hardware, citing “chipflation” and faster enterprise spending. The research may benefit the firm’s advisory and trading activity, but it is not a direct change to Morgan Stanley’s earnings outlook. Morgan Stanley turns bullish on IT hardware
• Negative Sentiment: A critical report on Morgan Stanley’s direct-lending business raised concerns about recent results and credit-market risks. Although details were limited, the negative coverage may weigh on sentiment toward the firm’s private-credit operations. Morgan Stanley direct lending results

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on MS shares. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Daiwa Securities Group increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. CICC Research lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded Morgan Stanley from a "market perform" rating to an "underperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $224.75.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

MS opened at $217.31 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $141.03 and a 52-week high of $232.25. The company has a 50 day moving average of $216.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $193.00. The company has a market cap of $342.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.22.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.57. The business had revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.13 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Friday, July 31st were issued a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 31st. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. This is an increase from Morgan Stanley's previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Morgan Stanley's payout ratio is currently 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, June 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Profile

Morgan Stanley NYSE: MS is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1935 by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley, the company provides a broad range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individual investors. Leadership has been guided by a senior executive team and board of directors; James P. Gorman has served as the company's chief executive and chairman in recent years.

The firm's primary business activities are organized around three principal businesses: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management.

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