Calamos Advisors LLC Sells 9,196 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Calamos Advisors LLC lessened its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 741,520 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 9,196 shares during the period. Calamos Advisors LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $69,147,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 21.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,474,452 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,917,159,000 after purchasing an additional 4,098,577 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 3.3% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 13,159,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,074,718,000 after purchasing an additional 415,531 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 2.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 13,107,965 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,070,528,000 after purchasing an additional 277,909 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth $956,566,000. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 125,756.8% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,641,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $904,714,000 after acquiring an additional 10,632,735 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MS. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $107.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Cfra raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $97.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.79.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 100,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.30, for a total transaction of $8,730,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 350,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,555,000. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 100,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.30, for a total transaction of $8,730,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 350,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,555,000. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 10,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.13, for a total transaction of $841,300.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 323,490 shares in the company, valued at $27,215,213.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 201,155 shares of company stock worth $17,564,394 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

MS stock traded up $0.18 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $90.26. The stock had a trading volume of 6,747,553 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,914,989. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $69.42 and a 52 week high of $95.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $146.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.43. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $88.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.81.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $15.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 9.57% and a return on equity of 10.87%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.70 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 6.36 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.93%.

Morgan Stanley 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.