Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. Buys New Stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 1,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $112,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Boston Partners purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter worth $477,765,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 21.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,474,452 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,917,159,000 after purchasing an additional 4,098,577 shares during the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter worth $223,596,000. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 53.1% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 4,015,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $327,929,000 after purchasing an additional 1,393,065 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 229.0% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,215,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $113,369,000 after purchasing an additional 846,266 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MS has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. HSBC raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $107.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $115.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $98.07.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.21, for a total transaction of $9,021,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 414,870 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,425,422.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 100,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.21, for a total transaction of $9,021,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 414,870 shares in the company, valued at $37,425,422.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Raja Akram sold 4,500 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.41, for a total transaction of $393,345.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 93,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,140,842.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 302,355 shares of company stock worth $26,753,102. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

NYSE:MS traded up $1.73 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $93.82. 6,392,547 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,852,011. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $89.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.20. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $69.42 and a 1 year high of $95.57. The company has a market cap of $152.61 billion, a PE ratio of 17.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.43.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.33. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 9.57% and a return on equity of 10.87%. The firm had revenue of $15.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.42 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.70 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 6.77 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.62%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.