Morgan Stanley $MS Shares Sold by Mosley Wealth Management

Key Points

• Mosley Wealth Management cut its Morgan Stanley position by 81.4% in the second quarter, retaining 1,943 shares valued at approximately $406,000. Despite the sale, institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of MS shares.
• Morgan Stanley reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $3.46 beating estimates of $2.89 and revenue rising 27.1% year over year to $21.35 billion. Analysts maintain a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating with a $224.75 price target.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $1.15 per share and authorized a $20 billion share buyback, while expanding its digital-asset exposure and advising on a potential $1 billion India IPO.

Mosley Wealth Management trimmed its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Free Report) by 81.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,943 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 8,519 shares during the quarter. Mosley Wealth Management's holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $406,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MS. Norges Bank bought a new position in Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth $2,736,648,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake 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 valued at $2,648,354,000 after purchasing an additional 3,364,080 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake 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 valued at $511,723,000 after purchasing an additional 1,833,844 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in shares of 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. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MS. Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $183.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Zacks Research cut shares of Morgan Stanley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $224.75.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

MS stock opened at $217.31 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $141.03 and a 1 year high of $232.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $342.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.57, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock's fifty day moving average is $216.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $193.00.

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

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 31st were paid a dividend of $1.15 per share. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 31st. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley's previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Morgan Stanley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, June 24th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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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