McAdam LLC Takes Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

Key Points

• McAdam LLC acquired 1,707 shares of Morgan Stanley, valued at approximately $240,000, marking the firm's new position in the financial services provider.
• Analysts have recently increased their price targets for Morgan Stanley, with Citigroup raising the target from $130 to $155, while Wells Fargo increased it from $145 to $165.
• Morgan Stanley declared a quarterly dividend of $1.00 per share, which is an increase from the previous dividend of $0.93, reflecting a yearly yield of 2.5%.

McAdam LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,707 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 worth $13,740,149,000 after purchasing an additional 7,636,547 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 1st quarter worth approximately $767,506,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 21.2% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 17,056,916 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,990,030,000 after acquiring an additional 2,989,122 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the second quarter valued at approximately $343,236,000. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Morgan Stanley from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $127.00 to $160.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $142.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Michael A. Pizzi sold 18,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.62, for a total transaction of $2,531,160.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 136,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,181,552.34. The trade was a 11.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 43,566 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.97, for a total value of $6,141,499.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 294,250 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $41,480,422.50. This represents a 12.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 148,149 shares of company stock worth $20,841,628. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of MS opened at $160.13 on Friday. The business's 50-day moving average price is $148.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $132.96. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $255.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.33. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $94.33 and a 1-year high of $163.98.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Get Free Report) last announced 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 company had revenue of $16.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.15 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 13.06% and a return on equity of 15.20%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.82 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were given a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 31st. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Morgan Stanley's dividend payout ratio is presently 45.30%.

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

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.

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