Stock Update (NYSE:MS): Virginia reaches $63 mln pact with 11 banks in mortgage bond fraud suit

[Reuters – UK Focus] – A group of 11 banks agreed to pay more than $63 million to settle allegations that they misled the Commonwealth of Virginia and its retirement system about residential mortgage backed-securities, Attorney General Mark R. Herring said on Friday. The banks, which include two Bank of America Corp units , Morgan Stanley (Xetra: 885836 – news) and a unit of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, defrauded the state’s retirement fund by selling it shoddy mortgage bonds in the run-up to the financial crisis, Virginia’s attorney general said in a 2014 lawsuit. None of banks admitted liability in the settlement, Herring said. Read more on this. Morgan Stanley (MS) , with a current value of $49.17B, opened this morning at $25.26. During the trading session, MS traded between $25.18 to $25.98 and has traded between $24.67 and $41.04 over the past year. MS shares are currently priced at 8.49x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively inexpensive compared to the industry ’s 14.09x forward p/e ratio. And for those looking to make a return holding the stock, the company pays shareholders $0.60 per share annually in dividends, yielding 2.28%. According to a consensus of 21 analysts, the earnings estimate of $0.85 per share would be $0.00 worse than the year-ago quarter and a $0.07 sequential decrease. The full-year EPS estimate is $2.92, which would be a $0.22 better than last year. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $9.41 Billion. If realized, that would be a 3.78% decrease over the year-ago quarter. More recently, Societe Generale downgraded MS from Hold to Sell (Jan 13, 2016). Previously, JMP Securities upgraded MS from Mkt Perform to Mkt Outperform. When considering if perhaps the stock is under or overvalued, the average price target is $35.30, which is 39.75% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:MS) Similar Articles: Market Update (NYSE:ALL): U.S. Appellate Court Upholds Major Win for Allstate in Medical Fraud Suit Company Update (NYSE:MS): Morgan Stanley Declares Quarterly Dividends on Its Preferred Stock Company Update: Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) – Profits at big U.S. banks soar since crisis -N.Y. Fed