Morgan Stanley $MS Shares Purchased by NorthRock Partners LLC

NorthRock Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 17.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,677 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,687 shares during the period. NorthRock Partners LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $3,923,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,782 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,607,000 after acquiring an additional 1,185 shares in the last quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter worth $256,000. WASHINGTON TRUST Co boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.9% in the second quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 10,915 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,537,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. Evolution Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the second quarter valued at $202,000. Finally, Oak Harvest Investment Services increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 3.3% during the second quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 131,010 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $18,454,000 after purchasing an additional 4,129 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Michael A. Pizzi sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.55, for a total transaction of $3,691,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 127,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,598,777.60. This trade represents a 13.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 32,968 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.61, for a total transaction of $6,020,286.48. Following the sale, the insider owned 357,342 shares in the company, valued at $65,254,222.62. This trade represents a 8.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 129,191 shares of company stock valued at $23,736,506. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MS. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $173.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $170.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Friday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $187.14.

Key Headlines Impacting Morgan Stanley

Here are the key news stories impacting Morgan Stanley this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Selected as one of the Wall Street banks involved in a large Pentagon/defense financing initiative — a potential source of advisory fees and franchise work. Pentagon taps Morgan Stanley for defense initiative
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s research/public commentary on AI and macro trends keeps the firm visible to institutional clients and supports its wealth & investment‑management franchise positioning. That can help offset short‑term trading volatility. Morgan Stanley: AI Revolution Set to Disrupt Jobs and Energy Infrastructure
• Neutral Sentiment: Firm commentary on monetary policy (warning that rate cuts are unlikely soon) is driving market context rather than company-specific flows — it influences investor expectations for bank earnings broadly. Don’t Expect Interest Rate Cuts Anytime Soon, Says Morgan Stanley
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley trimmed a voting stake in Siemens Energy — a portfolio/positioning adjustment that is informational but not material to core operating results. Morgan Stanley Trims Siemens Energy Voting Stake
• Negative Sentiment: The primary near‑term driver: Morgan Stanley capped redemptions at its North Haven private‑income/private‑credit fund after investors requested ~10.9% in redemptions; the fund honored a 5% quarterly repurchase cap. That gating triggered investor concern about private‑credit liquidity and valuation transparency and was the proximate cause of a multi‑percent selloff in MS and other alternative‑asset managers. Morgan Stanley restricts redemptions at private credit fund
• Negative Sentiment: Private‑credit contagion and gating at other managers (Cliffwater, BlackRock coverage) amplified sector risk — investors rotated out of financials and alternative‑asset exposure on worries about defaults, liquidity and mark‑to‑model valuations. Morgan Stanley and Cliffwater limit private credit withdrawals (FT)
• Negative Sentiment: Negative sentiment was reinforced on social channels and media coverage, which likely exacerbated intraday selling pressure and short‑term volatility even though underlying wealth & advisory metrics remain more stable. Wall Street’s Own Stock Is Getting Hammered on Reddit

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of MS stock opened at $154.84 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 12-month low of $94.33 and a 12-month high of $192.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.39, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $245.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $176.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $168.13.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.28 by $0.40. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 16.78% and a net margin of 14.09%.The firm had revenue of $17.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Investors of record on Friday, January 30th were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 39.18%.

Morgan Stanley 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.