Orange Investment Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

Orange Investment Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 4.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 64,130 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,806 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley makes up approximately 1.1% of Orange Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest position. Orange Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $10,194,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the second quarter worth $2,234,883,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter worth about $343,236,000. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 23.4% during the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 9,357,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,318,055,000 after purchasing an additional 1,776,544 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 319.7% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,092,341 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $294,727,000 after purchasing an additional 1,593,774 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 18.1% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 9,623,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,355,537,000 after purchasing an additional 1,476,372 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MS has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Wolfe Research raised Morgan Stanley from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $198.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $183.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.77.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, CEO Edward Pick sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.34, for a total transaction of $16,434,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 574,986 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $94,493,199.24. This trade represents a 14.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 0.2%

MS opened at $181.98 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $289.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $168.99 and its 200 day moving average is $154.49. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $94.33 and a fifty-two week high of $182.34.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.73. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 16.40% and a net margin of 13.85%.The business had revenue of $17.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.42 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.88 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st were issued a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 31st. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 41.03%.

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.