BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Grows Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - Free Report) by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 179,126 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 9,076 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.'s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $18,672,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 2.4% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 12,875,677 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,251,387,000 after acquiring an additional 303,654 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 2.0% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,597,493 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,029,970,000 after acquiring an additional 212,551 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 2.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,834,372 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $858,573,000 after acquiring an additional 242,896 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.8% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,151,492 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $672,969,000 after acquiring an additional 57,104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,711,805 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $491,159,000 after buying an additional 36,120 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MS. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. 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. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and upped their price target for the company from $107.00 to $142.00 in a report on Friday, November 15th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $112.94.

Insider Activity

In other Morgan Stanley news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were 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 of the company's stock, valued at $16,488,718.71. The trade was a 30.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company's stock.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS traded down $0.30 during trading on Friday, hitting $134.69. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,334,100 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,884,451. The company has a 50-day moving average of $116.16 and a 200-day moving average of $105.17. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $76.33 and a 12 month high of $135.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $216.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.34.

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

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were given a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley's payout ratio is currently 56.32%.

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.