DJ Morgan Stanley: Three Stocks It's Buying Now -- Barrons.com
12/18/17 14:21:00
By Ed Lin
Morgan Stanley has disclosed in December some investing moves that have required it to tip its hand a bit.
Morgan Stanley (ticker: MS), whose reportable U.S.-traded equity investments totaled more than $330 billion at the end of the third quarter, must make regulatory disclosures when its stake in a company tops 5% or when a previous large investment dips below 5%.
The bank has disclosed larger positions in Overstock.com (OSTK), Atara Biotherapeutics (ATRA), and Diana Containerships (DCIX). It reduced holdings in SharpSpring (SHSP), a cloud-based marketing technology company.
Morgan Stanley's overall stake in Overstock now stands up 2.87 million shares, a stake of 11.4%. At Sept. 30, the bank only held 130,000 shares of the online retailer. We noted in our recent cover story about Bitcoin that Chief Executive Patrick Byrne is developing a new licensed token-trading platform. Overstock shares have gained 150% so far in the fourth quarter through midday Monday trading.
Morgan Stanley's holdings in Atara have inched up to 1.53 million shares, reaching the 5% threshold, up from 1.44 million shares at Sept. 30. Atara is developing novel treatments for patients with cancer, autoimmune and viral diseases. Atara shares have slipped 12% since Sept. 30.
The bank's holdings of Diana Containerships has now grown to 40,148 shares a stake of 5.3%. Could shares of the shipping-transportation firm represent sunken treasure? Diana is up 16% since Sept. 30, adjusted for a one-for-seven reverse stock split that was effective Nov. 2, which means that the four shares Morgan Stanley held as of Sept. 30 would have been paid out in cash because Diana doesn't issue fractional shares. Remarkably, that reverse stock split was the fifth so far this year in an effort to meet the minimum bid price of $1 for continued listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. As one can imagine, for the year-to-date, Diana's share price has been nearly completely wiped out.
Morgan Stanley's position in SharpSpring reached 367,000, or 5.1%, at the end of 2015. At the end of 2016, the bank held 491,000 SharpSpring shares. The company seems to have lost its spring, though. The stock surged 67% in 2016 but as 2017 comes to a close, SharpSpring has dropped 22% year-to-date. Morgan Stanley disclosed that as of Nov. 30 the investment in SharpSpring had dropped below the 5% threshold, meaning the bank could have sold all the shares without further disclosure.
Follow @BarronsEdLin
Comments? E-mail us at editors@barrons.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 18, 2017 14:21 ET (19:21 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 02 21 PM EST 12-18-17
