Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Plans $0.93 Quarterly Dividend

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 16th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.925 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.82%.

Morgan Stanley has increased its dividend by an average of 19.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Morgan Stanley has a payout ratio of 40.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Morgan Stanley to earn $8.01 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.2%.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 5.2 %

NYSE:MS opened at $131.08 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $211.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.95, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $128.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $113.02. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $83.09 and a 1 year high of $136.24.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $15.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 10.64%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 7.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MS. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a report on Friday, November 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, HSBC lowered Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $126.07.

About Morgan Stanley

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.