HTLF Bank Purchases New Shares in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

HTLF Bank purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 25,605 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,388,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MS. CGC Financial Services LLC grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 5,200.0% during the fourth quarter. CGC Financial Services LLC now owns 265 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. RVW Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the third quarter worth about $27,000. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 77.3% in the 3rd quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 328 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 810.8% in the 3rd quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 337 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MS. HSBC raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $97.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $107.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.79.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 4,500 shares of the company’s 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 directly owns 93,134 shares in the company, valued at $8,140,842.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 4,500 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 93,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,140,842.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 26,655 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.19, for a total value of $2,324,049.45. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 286,835 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,009,143.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 191,155 shares of company stock worth $16,723,094. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MS traded up $1.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $91.31. 2,054,590 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,822,201. The firm has a market capitalization of $148.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.43. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $69.42 and a 52 week high of $95.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $88.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $84.85.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.33. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 10.87% and a net margin of 9.57%. The business had revenue of $15.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.70 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 6.53 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be paid a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio 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.