Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Plans $1.00 Quarterly Dividend

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 30th will be given a dividend of 1.00 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, February 13th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 30th.

Morgan Stanley has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.2%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Morgan Stanley has a dividend payout ratio of 43.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Morgan Stanley to earn $9.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 42.4%.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

MS opened at $191.04 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $303.62 billion, a PE ratio of 19.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.20. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $94.33 and a 1 year high of $192.16. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $174.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $159.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.28 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $17.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.69 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 13.85% and a return on equity of 16.40%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.22 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on MS. Barclays lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $183.00 to $219.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $180.00 target price on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $157.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $182.46.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1935 by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley, the company provides a broad range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individual investors. Leadership has been guided by a senior executive team and board of directors; James P. Gorman has served as the company’s chief executive and chairman in recent years.

The firm’s primary business activities are organized around three principal businesses: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management.