One Capital Management LLC Purchases Shares of 3,644 Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

One Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 3,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $354,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,834,372 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $858,573,000 after purchasing an additional 242,896 shares in the last quarter. Rathbones Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.8% in the second quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 720,144 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $69,991,000 after purchasing an additional 33,247 shares in the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 491.2% in the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 28,285 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,749,000 after purchasing an additional 23,501 shares in the last quarter. Element Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the second quarter worth $10,696,000. Finally, Seven Mile Advisory lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 12.2% in the second quarter. Seven Mile Advisory now owns 2,886 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $280,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In related news, insider Mandell Crawley sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.25, for a total value of $368,375.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,224 shares in the company, valued at $4,549,326. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Raja Akram sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total transaction of $797,775.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 87,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,266,848.03. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Mandell Crawley sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.25, for a total transaction of $368,375.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,549,326. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 252,000 shares of company stock worth $26,546,370. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 0.2 %

MS stock opened at $99.88 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.96, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $100.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $96.59. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $69.42 and a 52 week high of $109.11. The company has a market capitalization of $162.32 billion, a PE ratio of 18.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.37.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.17. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 10.17% and a return on equity of 11.85%. The business had revenue of $15.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.32 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share. Morgan Stanley’s revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 7.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 31st were paid a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 31st. This is an increase from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.70%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is 67.40%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on MS shares. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $116.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $91.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.73.

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.