MS Stock Spikes $2.17 Per Share on Friday February 3, 2017

Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (MSCP), as part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, recently announced a substantial investment in Fisher Container. The latter company has its headquarters in Illinois and it manufactures a range of packaging products, specifically for industrial markets, cleanroom and food. This news positively impacted the stock on Friday, 3 February 2017. But broader gains on Wall Street were brought about by upbeat NFP data in the US. The Friday rally was enjoyed across the board, with stocks rising on the Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P 500 index.

In January 2017, NFP numbers added 227,000 new jobs, significantly higher than the 157,000 new jobs added in December 2016. Analysts were expecting just 175,000 new jobs for January. This is the highest figure in 4 months in the US, and growth was reported in financial activities (+32,000 new jobs), retail trade (+46,000 new jobs) and construction (+36,000 new jobs). Gains were also seen in drinking places and food services (+30,000 new jobs) as well as health care (+18,000 new jobs).

How is Morgan Stanley (MS) Stock Performing?

Over the past 4 financial quarters, the actual earnings at Morgan Stanley have bested forecasts by a long margin. Positive earnings surprises have wrongfooted analysts on every occasion, and that trend is continuing. Q1 2017 estimates are $0.9 per share. The company’s market capitalization is $82.3 billion, with a price/earnings ratio of 17.86. The next earnings date is slated for 19 April 2017. As it stands, the stock has a dividend of $0.80, and a yield of 1.87%. Analysts are generally bullish about the performance of the stock moving forward.

The 1-year estimate price of the stock is $47.19 – $48 per share. If we turn our attention to the recommendation ratings from Reuters analysts, Morgan Stanley ranks at 2.3 on a scale where 1.0 is a strong buy and 5.0 is a sell. On 11 January 2017, Societe Generale upgraded Morgan Stanley from a sell to a buy. From a binary options trading perspective, the current trends are clearly bullish. The net effect of this is evident in call options over the short-term.