Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Price Target to $130.00

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) had its price target decreased by Wells Fargo & Company from $142.00 to $130.00 in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on MS. Barclays upped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $146.00 to $153.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $144.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $131.53.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 3.2 %

NYSE MS opened at $115.23 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $85.01 and a 12 month high of $142.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $129.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $123.97. The stock has a market cap of $185.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35.

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

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were issued a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is 46.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares in the company, valued at $11,076,654.40. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Morgan Stanley

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MS. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,711,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $491,159,000 after buying an additional 36,120 shares in the last quarter. Cadence Bank purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the third quarter valued at $230,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 121.2% during the third quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 16,591 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,729,000 after purchasing an additional 9,090 shares in the last quarter. De Lisle Partners LLP purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 3rd quarter worth $521,000. Finally, Financial Counselors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 88,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,202,000 after buying an additional 7,354 shares in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Morgan Stanley

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.