BKM Wealth Management LLC Acquires 127 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

BKM Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 6.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,204 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. BKM Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $208,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MS. West Paces Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 10.1% during the first quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 1,283 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $121,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 9.9% during the first quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO now owns 1,341 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $126,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $375,000 after buying an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. now owns 3,134 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&R Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. M&R Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,020 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $188,000 after buying an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on MS shares. TheStreet upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Cfra increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $97.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. HSBC increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $91.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $115.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.30.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $99.16 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $96.61 and a 200 day moving average of $91.81. The stock has a market cap of $161.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.38. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $69.42 and a 12 month high of $103.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.97.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $15.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 9.57% and a return on equity of 10.88%. Morgan Stanley’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.70 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 6.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th were given a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 29th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.43%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 61.93%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 100,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.21, for a total transaction of $9,021,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 414,870 shares in the company, valued at $37,425,422.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Charles Aubrey Smith III sold 11,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.09, for a total value of $1,009,008.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 126,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,368,457.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.21, for a total transaction of $9,021,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 414,870 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,425,422.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 118,154 shares of company stock worth $10,722,696 over the last three months. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.