Morgan Stanley price target lowered to $172 from $196 at Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs analyst Richard Ramsden lowered the firm’s price target on Morgan Stanley (MS) to $172 from $196 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. U.S. regulators issued proposals revising the Basel III Endgame, recalibrating the G-SIB buffer, and updating the Standardized Approach, which collectively appear constructive for large-cap banks, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The changes are expected to leave RWAs largely unchanged while reducing CET1 requirements by roughly $50B, modestly easing capital constraints, with the greatest benefit to banks such as Morgan Stanley and Citigroup (C) that have relatively tighter excess capital positions, the firm says.