DRW Securities LLC Sells 7,515 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

DRW Securities LLC trimmed its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 62.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,579 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 7,515 shares during the period. DRW Securities LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $477,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the first quarter valued at approximately $87,558,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,404,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,335,495,000 after acquiring an additional 590,872 shares during the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter worth $43,850,000. Rokos Capital Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the first quarter worth $41,208,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 19.8% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 2,077,282 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $216,536,000 after purchasing an additional 343,234 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MS. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. HSBC downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the company from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $115.63.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 1.8 %

NYSE MS opened at $131.25 on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $76.33 and a 1 year high of $136.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $211.45 billion, a PE ratio of 19.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a fifty day moving average of $117.46 and a 200 day moving average of $105.78.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $15.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 10.64%. Research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 7.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 56.32%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total transaction of $7,150,200.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 138,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,488,718.71. This represents a 30.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

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.