Fifth Third Bancorp Decreases Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Fifth Third Bancorp reduced its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,506,337 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,157 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp owned 0.09% of Morgan Stanley worth $189,377,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. DGS Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $554,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. AM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 20,818 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,617,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. CX Institutional now owns 7,604 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $956,000 after purchasing an additional 465 shares during the period. LexAurum Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. LexAurum Advisors LLC now owns 7,239 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $910,000 after buying an additional 572 shares during the period. Finally, RFG Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 2,268 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $285,000 after acquiring an additional 266 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MS shares. Bank of America lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $146.00 to $153.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. HSBC lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of MS stock opened at $137.85 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $129.40 and a 200 day moving average of $114.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $83.09 and a 1-year high of $139.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $222.09 billion, a PE ratio of 17.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.36.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 14.39%. The company had revenue of $16.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 8.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 46.60%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total value of $2,380,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 81,440 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,076,654.40. This represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. This trade represents a 6.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Company 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.