bLong Financial LLC Purchases Shares of 8,871 Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

bLong Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 8,871 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,115,000. Morgan Stanley comprises approximately 0.9% of bLong Financial LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Peoples Bank KS purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 138.1% during the 3rd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MS shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Barclays raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a report on Friday, November 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

MS opened at $139.19 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $84.41 and a 52-week high of $142.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $224.24 billion, a PE ratio of 17.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $131.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $118.46.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.68. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. The firm had revenue of $16.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 46.60%.

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.