Phillips Wealth Planners LLC Sells 586 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Phillips Wealth Planners LLC trimmed its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 15.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,280 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 586 shares during the quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $405,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,004 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $378,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,748 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Cardinal Point Capital Management ULC now owns 2,697 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $339,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Mason & Associates Inc grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Mason & Associates Inc now owns 3,177 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $399,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New Hampshire grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New Hampshire now owns 6,313 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $794,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of 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 upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of MS stock opened at $136.00 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $129.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $114.30. The company has a market cap of $219.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $83.09 and a twelve month high of $138.38.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.68. The business had revenue of $16.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. Morgan Stanley’s revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.13 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.60%.

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.