Behind the Scenes of Morgan Stanley's Latest Options Trends

Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bullish stance on Morgan Stanley MS.

And retail traders should know.

We noticed this today when the trades showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.

Whether these are institutions or just wealthy individuals, we don't know. But when something this big happens with MS, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

So how do we know what these investors just did?

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 23 uncommon options trades for Morgan Stanley.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 52% bullish and 47%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 6 are puts, for a total amount of $752,541, and 17 are calls, for a total amount of $1,068,351.

Projected Price Targets

Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts, it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from $65.0 to $95.0 for Morgan Stanley over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

Examining the volume and open interest provides crucial insights into stock research. This information is key in gauging liquidity and interest levels for Morgan Stanley's options at certain strike prices. Below, we present a snapshot of the trends in volume and open interest for calls and puts across Morgan Stanley's significant trades, within a strike price range of $65.0 to $95.0, over the past month.

Morgan Stanley Option Activity Analysis: Last 30 Days

Significant Options Trades Detected:

About Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley is a global investment bank whose history, through its legacy firms, can be traced back to 1924. The company has institutional securities, wealth management, and investment management segments. The company had over $4 trillion of client assets as well as over 80,000 employees at the end of 2022. Approximately 50% of the company's net revenue is from its institutional securities business, with the remainder coming from wealth and investment management. The company derives about 30% of its total revenue outside the Americas.

Having examined the options trading patterns of Morgan Stanley, our attention now turns directly to the company. This shift allows us to delve into its present market position and performance

Morgan Stanley's Current Market Status

• Currently trading with a volume of 4,190,531, the MS's price is up by 3.29%, now at $79.41.
• RSI readings suggest the stock is currently is currently neutral between overbought and oversold.
• Anticipated earnings release is in 48 days.

Professional Analyst Ratings for Morgan Stanley

Over the past month, 3 industry analysts have shared their insights on this stock, proposing an average target price of $89.33333333333333.

• An analyst from Oppenheimer persists with their Outperform rating on Morgan Stanley, maintaining a target price of $103.
• Reflecting concerns, an analyst from Exane BNP Paribas lowers its rating to Neutral with a new price target of $85.
• An analyst from Societe Generale has revised its rating downward to Hold, adjusting the price target to $80.

Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock, but they have higher profit potential. Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily, scaling in and out of trades, following more than one indicator, and following the markets closely.

If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Morgan Stanley, Benzinga Pro gives you real-time options trades alerts.