Vanguard Capital Wealth Advisors Raises Holdings in Morgan Stanley $MS

Vanguard Capital Wealth Advisors increased its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 29.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,886 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,625 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley accounts for about 2.3% of Vanguard Capital Wealth Advisors’ holdings, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Vanguard Capital Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $3,321,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth $2,736,648,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,917,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,648,354,000 after acquiring an additional 3,364,080 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 142.4% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,122,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $511,723,000 after purchasing an additional 1,833,844 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,253,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361,940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 2,332.9% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,406,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $249,710,000 after purchasing an additional 1,348,683 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on MS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. BNP Paribas Exane upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $224.75.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

NYSE MS opened at $217.31 on Monday. Morgan Stanley has a one year low of $141.03 and a one year high of $232.25. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $216.84 and a 200 day moving average of $193.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $342.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.57, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.22.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. The business had revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Friday, July 31st were given a dividend of $1.15 per share. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, June 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Key Headlines Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan increased their holdings of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs during the second quarter and added exposure to Solana and XRP products. The activity reinforces Morgan Stanley’s expansion into digital-asset products, which could support future fee and client-asset growth. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan load up on crypto ETFs
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is among five banks advising Carlyle-backed Quest Global on a potential India IPO of up to $1 billion. The mandate could generate advisory and underwriting fees while highlighting the firm’s international capital-markets franchise. Quest Global selects banks for India IPO
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group raised its earnings estimates for Morgan Stanley, providing a supportive analyst signal following the company’s strong recent quarterly results. Erste Group lifts Morgan Stanley earnings estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley adopted a more constructive view of U.S. IT hardware, citing “chipflation” and faster enterprise spending. The research may benefit the firm’s advisory and trading activity, but it is not a direct change to Morgan Stanley’s earnings outlook. Morgan Stanley turns bullish on IT hardware
• Negative Sentiment: A critical report on Morgan Stanley’s direct-lending business raised concerns about recent results and credit-market risks. Although details were limited, the negative coverage may weigh on sentiment toward the firm’s private-credit operations. Morgan Stanley direct lending results

About Morgan Stanley

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.