Company Update: Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) – LPC: Morgan Stanley tops first quarter U.S. CLO league tables

[Reuters] – Morgan Stanley was the leading arranger of U.S. Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) funds at the end of the first quarter as issuance slumped more than 70 percent from a year earlier amid global market volatility and preparation for the implementation of risk-retention rules in December. Morgan Stanley arranged four U.S. CLOs in the first quarter, giving it a 19 percent market share, according to Thomson Reuters LPC Collateral data, moving up one place from the same period of 2015. Lower CLO volume affects appetite for the debt and puts pressure on the $880 billion loan market, which saw a 35 percent drop in annual institutional volume to $294.47 billion in 2015 compared to 2014, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data. Read more on this. Morgan Stanley (MS) , with a current market cap of $46.16B, began trading this morning at $24.01. Today’s price range has been between $23.78 and $24.18 per share with its 52-week range being $21.16 to $41.04. Morgan Stanley (MS) shares are currently priced at 10.26x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively inexpensive compared to the industry’s 11.88x earnings multiple for the same period. The company pays shareholders $0.60 per share in dividend income per year, for a current yield of 2.46%. In a review of the consensus earnings estimate this quarter, 25 sell-side analysts are looking at $0.51 per share, which would be $0.34 worse than the year-ago quarter and a $0.39 sequential decrease. Furthermore, our analysis shows the full-year EPS estimate to be $2.38, which would be a $0.32 worse when compared to the last year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $8.10 Billion. If realized, that would be a 17.18% decrease over the year-ago quarter. More recently, Portales Partners upgraded MS from Underperform to Sector Perform (Feb 16, 2016). Previously, JP Morgan upgraded MS from Neutral to Overweight. Given all the information above, we should disclose to readers that the average price target is $32.39, which is 34.90% above than it opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:MS) Similar Articles: Stock Update: Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) – California sues Morgan Stanley over mortgage losses Stock Update: Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) – Sell the recent equity rally, says Morgan Stanley Company Update: Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) – Morgan Stanley CEO Gorman elected to N.Y. Fed board