Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC Takes $519,000 Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 4,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $519,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Schear Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in Morgan Stanley by 9.0% in the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 10,791 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,125,000 after purchasing an additional 887 shares during the period. River Street Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.9% during the third quarter. River Street Advisors LLC now owns 17,051 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,777,000 after buying an additional 315 shares during the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 212 shares during the period. KPP Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. KPP Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,769 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $810,000 after acquiring an additional 475 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 1,152,937 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $120,182,000 after acquiring an additional 16,350 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In other news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total value of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 138,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,488,718.71. This represents a 30.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays upped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. HSBC raised Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, October 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $111.29.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

MS opened at $134.06 on Monday. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $76.33 and a 1 year high of $134.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $112.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $103.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $215.98 billion, a PE ratio of 20.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.34.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $15.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 10.64% and a return on equity of 12.58%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 7.32 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.76%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.32%.

Morgan Stanley Profile

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.