Citigroup Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Stock

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) had its price target upped by Citigroup from $105.00 to $135.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on MS. HSBC upgraded shares of 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. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $118.00.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 0.1 %

MS stock opened at $131.21 on Monday. Morgan Stanley has a one year low of $76.33 and a one year high of $136.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $211.38 billion, a PE ratio of 19.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.34. 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 has a fifty day moving average of $118.71 and a 200-day moving average of $106.14.

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

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 56.32%.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total transaction of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 138,363 shares in the company, 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 SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Creekmur Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 26.6% in the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 1,066 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $100,000 after acquiring an additional 224 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2.6% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 60,228 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,671,000 after acquiring an additional 1,524 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.9% in the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 334,715 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,517,000 after acquiring an additional 3,016 shares during the last quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 21.9% in the first quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. now owns 8,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $823,000 after acquiring an additional 1,572 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the first quarter valued at about $1,171,000. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Morgan Stanley Company 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.