Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Sells 81,000 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Key Points

• Diamond Hill Capital Management cut its Morgan Stanley stake by 44.6% in the fourth quarter, selling 81,000 shares and leaving it with 100,422 shares valued at about $17.8 million.
• Morgan Stanley reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, posting $3.43 EPS versus $3.02 expected and revenue of $20.58 billion versus $19.23 billion expected, with revenue up 16% year over year.
• The stock has been supported by positive analyst and market sentiment, including recent upgrades and higher price targets, while shares traded near $201 after rising toward their 52-week high of $203.09.

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Free Report) by 44.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 100,422 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 81,000 shares during the quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $17,828,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MS. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 40.1% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 29,744 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $5,281,000 after buying an additional 8,512 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 103.1% in the 3rd quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 12,700 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,019,000 after buying an additional 6,448 shares during the period. Donaldson Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 467,246 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $74,273,000 after buying an additional 9,056 shares during the period. ABN Amro Investment Solutions increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 52.6% in the 3rd quarter. ABN Amro Investment Solutions now owns 113,504 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $18,043,000 after buying an additional 39,104 shares during the period. Finally, A4 Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the 3rd quarter valued at about $855,000. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Seeking Alpha flagged that Morgan Stanley was upgraded to Buy after its strong first-quarter results, reinforcing the view that recent earnings momentum is still supporting the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage also noted that Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) ahead of the GTA VI release, underscoring continued active equity-research influence and a generally constructive tone from the bank’s analysts. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s own recent stock commentary said MS has delivered a strong one-year rally, with investors still debating valuation versus earnings power rather than reacting to any single new company-specific surprise. Article Title

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock opened at $201.18 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $317.32 billion, a PE ratio of 18.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52. The firm's 50 day moving average is $179.08 and its 200 day moving average is $176.01. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $123.88 and a 1 year high of $203.09.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.02 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $20.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.23 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 14.65% and a return on equity of 17.70%. The firm's revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.60 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 11.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Morgan Stanley's payout ratio is 36.23%.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In related news, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.24, for a total transaction of $2,779,935.60. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 365,802 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $69,224,370.48. The trade was a 3.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 51,668 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.59, for a total transaction of $9,744,068.12. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 282,142 shares in the company, valued at $53,209,159.78. This trade represents a 15.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 77,476 shares of company stock valued at $14,644,762. 0.17% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $170.00 to $194.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Citizens Jmp reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Evercore raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $189.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Argus raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $205.95.

About Morgan Stanley

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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