First Dallas Securities Inc. Has $636,000 Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

First Dallas Securities Inc. lowered its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 14.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 850 shares during the period. First Dallas Securities Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $636,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Calamos Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 96,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,161,000 after purchasing an additional 14,933 shares in the last quarter. Grunden Financial Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Trust Point Inc. boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Trust Point Inc. now owns 11,254 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,415,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Optas LLC lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Optas LLC now owns 3,051 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $384,000 after buying an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Life Planners acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $111,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $137.26 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $129.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $116.20. The firm has a market cap of $221.13 billion, a PE ratio of 17.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.36. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $83.09 and a 1 year high of $141.48. 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 (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business had revenue of $16.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.13 earnings per share. Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.52 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.60%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MS. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.27.

Insider Activity

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $11,076,654.40. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. The trade was 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 currently owned by company insiders.

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.