Royal Fund Management LLC Purchases 7,724 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Key Points

• Royal Fund Management LLC increased its Morgan Stanley stake by 586.9% in the third quarter, purchasing 7,724 additional shares for a total of 9,040 shares valued at approximately $1.7 million.
• Institutional investors own 84.19% of Morgan Stanley, while analysts give the stock a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating with an average price target of $214.62.
• Morgan Stanley exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $3.03 in EPS and $20.34 billion in revenue; the company also declared a quarterly dividend of $1.15 per share, representing a 2.6% yield.

Royal Fund Management LLC raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Free Report) by 586.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,040 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,724 shares during the quarter. Royal Fund Management LLC's holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,700,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the second quarter worth $78,825,883,310. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.5% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,326,676 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,686,881,000 after acquiring an additional 87,533 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.7% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,206,144 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,342,532,000 after acquiring an additional 188,296 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 9,794,288 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,611,846,000 after purchasing an additional 422,775 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.9% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,235,756 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,190,585,000 after buying an additional 65,739 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on MS. Freedom Capital raised Morgan Stanley from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $230.00 price objective (down from $250.00) on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $205.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, 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 research note on Thursday, July 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $214.62.

Key Stories Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is expanding its wealth-management strategy in the United Kingdom, targeting the country’s substantial pool of household savings. The initiative supports the firm’s long-term effort to diversify beyond market-sensitive investment banking and equities activity. Morgan Stanley Bets on UK Savers After Equities Revenue Jumps 41%
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage highlighting a 41% increase in equities revenue reinforces the strength of Morgan Stanley’s trading and institutional-securities businesses, adding support to the company’s recent earnings momentum.
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are positioning asset tokenization as a significant growth opportunity. Wider adoption of tokenized financial assets could create new investment-banking, trading, custody and wealth-management revenue streams over time. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Frame Tokenization as Key Growth Opportunity
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent commentary notes that Morgan Stanley has fallen about 11% over the past month and questions whether the decline reflects an attractive entry point or an elevated valuation. This framing may be contributing to short-term caution, even though it is not a new company-specific warning. Morgan Stanley Just Dropped 11% in a Month
• Neutral Sentiment: Higher price targets for Morgan Stanley preferred stock are relevant primarily to preferred shareholders and have limited direct implications for the common stock.
• Negative Sentiment: With the common shares trading below their 50-day and 200-day moving averages, investors may be taking profits or reducing exposure after a strong run, despite solid fundamentals. This technical and valuation pressure appears to be the most likely explanation for the weaker share performance today.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Morgan Stanley stock traded down $4.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $179.40. 7,628,448 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,152,328. The stock has a market cap of $282.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $200.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $204.10. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $152.80 and a fifty-two week high of $232.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.93 by $0.10. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.40% and a net margin of 15.63%. The company had revenue of $20.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.80 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 12.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 13th. Investors of record on Friday, October 30th will be issued a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 30th. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. Morgan Stanley's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.51%.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

Morgan Stanley NYSE: MS is a global financial services company that provides investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, institutions, governments and individual investors. Founded in 1935, the company is headquartered in New York City and serves clients through operations across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and other international markets.

Through its Institutional Securities segment, Morgan Stanley offers investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading, research, lending and related capital-markets services.

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