Strs Ohio Trims Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

Key Points

• Strs Ohio cut its Morgan Stanley stake by 5.3% in the first quarter, selling 18,882 shares and ending with 338,562 shares worth about $55.7 million.
• Morgan Stanley reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $3.43 and revenue of $20.58 billion, both ahead of analyst expectations and up from a year earlier.
• The company is returning more capital to shareholders, announcing a $20 billion share buyback and a quarterly dividend of $1.00 per share, while analysts currently keep a consensus Hold rating with a $210.50 price target.

Strs Ohio lessened its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Free Report) by 5.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 338,562 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 18,882 shares during the quarter. Strs Ohio's holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $55,717,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the 4th 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. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 103,854,751 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $18,437,334,000 after buying an additional 539,544 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.6% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 27,321,214 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $4,343,523,000 after buying an additional 167,487 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,070,557 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $4,786,350,000 after buying an additional 534,708 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 25,018,335 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $4,441,505,000 after buying an additional 524,189 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.24, for a total value 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. This represents a 3.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 51,668 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.59, for a total value of $9,744,068.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 282,142 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $53,209,159.78. This represents a 15.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 77,476 shares of company stock valued at $14,644,762. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Dbs Bank lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $185.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $186.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Argus increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $210.50.

Morgan Stanley News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley secured conditional OCC approval for a trust charter, moving it closer to offering a federally supervised digital-asset trust and strengthening its long-term crypto custody strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary from market outlets highlighted Morgan Stanley’s favorable stance on traditional asset managers and bank stocks, which can support sentiment toward MS’s wealth-management and capital-markets model.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor articles also noted Morgan Stanley’s recently announced dividend hike and $20 billion buyback, reinforcing capital-return support for the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several recent posts discussed Morgan Stanley research on other companies, including price-target changes on stocks like American Airlines, Edison International, and Dominion Energy; these are informative but not direct catalysts for MS.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $214.27 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $204.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $185.47. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $135.26 and a fifty-two week high of $230.47. The company has a market capitalization of $337.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.02 by $0.41. The firm had revenue of $20.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $19.23 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 17.70% and a net margin of 14.65%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.60 EPS. Analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 11.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, June 24th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley's payout ratio is 36.23%.

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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