Morgan Stanley Current Debt

MS-PP Preferred Stock   25.93  0.02  0.08%   
Morgan Stanley's financial leverage is the degree to which the firm utilizes its fixed-income securities and uses equity to finance projects. Companies with high leverage are usually considered to be at financial risk. Morgan Stanley's financial risk is the risk to Morgan Stanley stockholders that is caused by an increase in debt. In other words, with a high degree of financial leverage come high-interest payments, which usually reduce Earnings Per Share (EPS).
Given that Morgan Stanley's debt-to-equity ratio measures a Company's obligations relative to the value of its net assets, it is usually used by traders to estimate the extent to which Morgan Stanley is acquiring new debt as a mechanism of leveraging its assets. A high debt-to-equity ratio is generally associated with increased risk, implying that it has been aggressive in financing its growth with debt. Another way to look at debt-to-equity ratios is to compare the overall debt load of Morgan Stanley to its assets or equity, showing how much of the company assets belong to shareholders vs. creditors. If shareholders own more assets, Morgan Stanley is said to be less leveraged. If creditors hold a majority of Morgan Stanley's assets, the Company is said to be highly leveraged.
  
Check out the analysis of Morgan Stanley Fundamentals Over Time.
To learn how to invest in Morgan Preferred Stock, please use our How to Invest in Morgan Stanley guide.

Morgan Stanley Assets Financed by Debt

Typically, companies with high debt-to-asset ratios are said to be highly leveraged. The higher the ratio, the greater risk will be associated with the Morgan Stanley's operation. In addition, a high debt-to-assets ratio may indicate a low borrowing capacity of Morgan Stanley, which in turn will lower the firm's financial flexibility.

Understaning Morgan Stanley Use of Financial Leverage

Morgan Stanley's financial leverage ratio measures its total debt position, including all of its outstanding liabilities, and compares it to Morgan Stanley's current equity. If creditors own a majority of Morgan Stanley's assets, the company is considered highly leveraged. Understanding the composition and structure of Morgan Stanley's outstanding bonds gives an idea of how risky it is and if it is worth investing in.
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Pair Trading with Morgan Stanley

One of the main advantages of trading using pair correlations is that every trade hedges away some risk. Because there are two separate transactions required, even if Morgan Stanley position performs unexpectedly, the other equity can make up some of the losses. Pair trading also minimizes risk from directional movements in the market. For example, if an entire industry or sector drops because of unexpected headlines, the short position in Morgan Stanley will appreciate offsetting losses from the drop in the long position's value.

Moving together with Morgan Preferred Stock

  0.83SCHW-PJ Charles SchwabPairCorr

Moving against Morgan Preferred Stock

  0.8FUFUW BitFuFu WarrantPairCorr
  0.7MS-PA Morgan StanleyPairCorr
  0.69RJF-PB Raymond James FinancialPairCorr
  0.68MS-PE Morgan StanleyPairCorr
  0.59C Citigroup Aggressive PushPairCorr
The ability to find closely correlated positions to Morgan Stanley could be a great tool in your tax-loss harvesting strategies, allowing investors a quick way to find a similar-enough asset to replace Morgan Stanley when you sell it. If you don't do this, your portfolio allocation will be skewed against your target asset allocation. So, investors can't just sell and buy back Morgan Stanley - that would be a violation of the tax code under the "wash sale" rule, and this is why you need to find a similar enough asset and use the proceeds from selling Morgan Stanley to buy it.
The correlation of Morgan Stanley is a statistical measure of how it moves in relation to other instruments. This measure is expressed in what is known as the correlation coefficient, which ranges between -1 and +1. A perfect positive correlation (i.e., a correlation coefficient of +1) implies that as Morgan Stanley moves, either up or down, the other security will move in the same direction. Alternatively, perfect negative correlation means that if Morgan Stanley moves in either direction, the perfectly negatively correlated security will move in the opposite direction. If the correlation is 0, the equities are not correlated; they are entirely random. A correlation greater than 0.8 is generally described as strong, whereas a correlation less than 0.5 is generally considered weak.
Correlation analysis and pair trading evaluation for Morgan Stanley can also be used as hedging techniques within a particular sector or industry or even over random equities to generate a better risk-adjusted return on your portfolios.
Pair CorrelationCorrelation Matching

Additional Tools for Morgan Preferred Stock Analysis

When running Morgan Stanley's price analysis, check to measure Morgan Stanley's market volatility, profitability, liquidity, solvency, efficiency, growth potential, financial leverage, and other vital indicators. We have many different tools that can be utilized to determine how healthy Morgan Stanley is operating at the current time. Most of Morgan Stanley's value examination focuses on studying past and present price action to predict the probability of Morgan Stanley's future price movements. You can analyze the entity against its peers and the financial market as a whole to determine factors that move Morgan Stanley's price. Additionally, you may evaluate how the addition of Morgan Stanley to your portfolios can decrease your overall portfolio volatility.

What is Financial Leverage?

Financial leverage is the use of borrowed money (debt) to finance the purchase of assets with the expectation that the income or capital gain from the new asset will exceed the cost of borrowing. In most cases, the debt provider will limit how much risk it is ready to take and indicate a limit on the extent of the leverage it will allow. In the case of asset-backed lending, the financial provider uses the assets as collateral until the borrower repays the loan. In the case of a cash flow loan, the general creditworthiness of the company is used to back the loan. The concept of leverage is common in the business world. It is mostly used to boost the returns on equity capital of a company, especially when the business is unable to increase its operating efficiency and returns on total investment. Because earnings on borrowing are higher than the interest payable on debt, the company's total earnings will increase, ultimately boosting stockholders' profits.

Leverage and Capital Costs

The debt to equity ratio plays a role in the working average cost of capital (WACC). The overall interest on debt represents the break-even point that must be obtained to profitability in a given venture. Thus, WACC is essentially the average interest an organization owes on the capital it has borrowed for leverage. Let's say equity represents 60% of borrowed capital, and debt is 40%. This results in a financial leverage calculation of 40/60, or 0.6667. The organization owes 10% on all equity and 5% on all debt. That means that the weighted average cost of capital is (.4)(5) + (.6)(10) - or 8%. For every $10,000 borrowed, this organization will owe $800 in interest. Profit must be higher than 8% on the project to offset the cost of interest and justify this leverage.

Benefits of Financial Leverage

Leverage provides the following benefits for companies:
  • Leverage is an essential tool a company's management can use to make the best financing and investment decisions.
  • It provides a variety of financing sources by which the firm can achieve its target earnings.
  • Leverage is also an essential technique in investing as it helps companies set a threshold for the expansion of business operations. For example, it can be used to recommend restrictions on business expansion once the projected return on additional investment is lower than the cost of debt.
By borrowing funds, the firm incurs a debt that must be paid. But, this debt is paid in small installments over a relatively long period of time. This frees funds for more immediate use in the stock market. For example, suppose a company can afford a new factory but will be left with negligible free cash. In that case, it may be better to finance the factory and spend the cash on hand on inputs, labor, or even hold a significant portion as a reserve against unforeseen circumstances.

The Risk of Financial Leverage

The most obvious and apparent risk of leverage is that if price changes unexpectedly, the leveraged position can lead to severe losses. For example, imagine a hedge fund seeded by $50 worth of investor money. The hedge fund borrows another $50 and buys an asset worth $100, leading to a leverage ratio of 2:1. For the investor, this is neither good nor bad -- until the asset price changes. If the asset price goes up 10 percent, the investor earns $10 on $50 of capital, a net gain of 20 percent, and is very pleased with the increased gains from the leverage. However, if the asset price crashes unexpectedly, say by 30 percent, the investor loses $30 on $50 of capital, suffering a 60 percent loss. In other words, the effect of leverage is to increase the volatility of returns and increase the effects of a price change on the asset to the bottom line while increasing the chance for profit as well.