Wellington Management Co. LLP recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Financial company by 11.01% to 49.21 million shares with purchase of 4.88 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 2.87% valued currently at $4.04 billion. In addition, JPMorgan Investment Management, I raised its holdings by 0.86 million to 33.98 million shares. And Capital Research & Management Co has lifted its position by 4.48% or 1.22 million shares – to 28.46 million shares.
With over 6.15 million Morgan Stanley (MS) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $89.89 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $552.61 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 3.98% and its price on 11/28/22 lost nearly -1.12%. Currently, there are 1.67B common shares owned by the public and among those 1.31B shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 29 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for MS have a consensus price objective of $92.88. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $105.00 and a low of $79.22. The average price target is 3.68% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -13.47% over that period. But an upside of 14.39% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $92.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 80 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 40 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 1,681,292 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 40 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 1,005,666 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Morgan Stanley are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Government Pension Fund – Global. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 38.64 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $3.17 billion. The company bought an additional 0.18 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.25% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 0.3 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 30.64 million shares valued at over $2.52 billion and representing 1.79% of the shares outstanding. Government Pension Fund – Global sold -3.7 million shares to bring its total holdings to over 15.74 million shares at a value of $1.29 billion. Government Pension Fund – Global now owns shares totaling to 0.92% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) opened at $90.20, down -$0.71 from a prior closing price of $90.91. However, the script later moved the day high at 91.10, down -1.12%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 0.77% and 5.32% over the past three months. MS shares are trading -8.43% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -8.21% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $72.05 and touched a high of $109.73 over the same period. MS has an average intraday trading volume of 7.76 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 3.16%, 7.93%, and 6.07% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) shares accounts for 63.80% of the company’s 1.67B shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 26.84%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 35.86% and 25.88% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $151.48B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.31. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 13.05, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $6.89. The company has a PEG of 8.66 and the debt-to-equity ratio at 6.85. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.30% over the week and 2.07% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley (MS) will achieve an EPS of $29.42 for the current quarter, $36.7 for the next quarter and $147.22 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $17.95 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $33.11. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $40.97 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 24.20%, and 16.60% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 1.51% over the next five years, compared to 22.40% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 29 brokerage firm advisors rate Morgan Stanley (MS) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.20. Specifically, 17 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 9 of the 29 advise that investors “hold,” and 2 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the MS, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Atlantic Equities stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on October 05, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $95-$85. Citigroup on their part issued Buy rating on December 03, 2021.
