6,878 Shares in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Purchased by Inscription Capital LLC

Inscription Capital LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 6,878 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $802,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 6,156 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $774,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. 1ST Source Bank boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 15,925 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,002,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,727 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $594,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Omnia Family Wealth LLC increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Omnia Family Wealth LLC now owns 3,140 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $395,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Continuum Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 3,638 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $457,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In other news, Director Robert H. Herz sold 800 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.32, for a total transaction of $95,456.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 96,760 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,545,403.20. This represents a 0.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 40,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total value of $4,800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 335,765 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $40,291,800. This represents a 10.64% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,868 shares of company stock valued at $6,019,548 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and set a $130.00 price target (up from $125.00) on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $150.00 to $138.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $120.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Erste Group Bank raised Morgan Stanley from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Saturday, May 24th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $133.62.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock traded up $2.36 on Thursday, hitting $132.45. 6,170,369 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,702,864. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $122.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $125.22. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $90.94 and a 52 week high of $142.03.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $17.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.98% and a return on equity of 14.98%. The business's revenue was up 17.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.02 EPS. Research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th were paid a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley's payout ratio is 43.43%.

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.