Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley has a consensus analyst rating of “Moderate Buy” from 26 analysts, with an average 12-month price target of $224.50. The breakdown includes 12 buys, 2 strong buys, 11 holds, and 1 sell.
• The company recently beat earnings expectations, reporting $3.46 EPS versus $2.89 expected and revenue of $21.35 billion versus $19.67 billion estimated. Quarterly revenue rose 27.1% year over year.
• Morgan Stanley’s board authorized a $20 billion share repurchase plan and raised its quarterly dividend to $1.15 per share from $1.00. The new dividend implies a 2.1% yield and an annualized payout of $4.60 per share.

Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Get Free Report) have been given a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" by the twenty-six analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $224.50.

MS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $211.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $243.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Monday.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of MS opened at $215.26 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $136.17 and a fifty-two week high of $232.25. The firm has a market cap of $339.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.40, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $213.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $189.80. 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 released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. The company had revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.51%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.13 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 12.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, June 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes 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 board believes its stock is undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be paid a dividend of $1.15 per share. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. This is a boost from Morgan Stanley's previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley's payout ratio is currently 32.34%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MS. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth about $2,736,648,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 29.1% during the 4th 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 raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 142.4% during the 4th 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 position in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $21,253,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361,940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2,332.9% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,406,495 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $249,710,000 after buying an additional 1,348,683 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s own analysts highlighted supportive themes in other names, including stronger earnings, M&A momentum, and constructive AI/cloud spending trends, which reinforces the firm’s research credibility and may help sentiment around MS’s advisory and markets businesses.
• Positive Sentiment: The bank has been cited in recent commentary about a potential M&A boom and a strong first half for Wall Street, which could support expectations for investment banking and deal-related fees at Morgan Stanley (MS). Morgan Stanley stock in focus as Goldman Sachs predicts an M&A boom
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley was also mentioned as part of broader market coverage around strong U.S. banking results and analyst upgrades, but these items were not direct company-specific catalysts for MS.
• Negative Sentiment: The stock has faced some pressure from investors focusing more on what Morgan Stanley is saying about the market than on MS itself, especially AI spending, which is seen as huge but potentially less immediately profitable for U.S. investors.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent industry-wide risk-off trading and weakness across mega-cap tech and the Nasdaq have also weighed on financial stocks, limiting upside in Morgan Stanley (MS) despite its strong fundamentals.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.