Morgan Stanley (MS) has agreed to pay a penalty of $60 million to settle a lawsuit under which it is alleged that the bank exposed the personal data of customers after it failed to retire some of its older information technology, according to Reuters.
The penalty relates to a class-action lawsuit filed by 15 million customers. In 2016, Morgan Stanley failed to decommission two wealth management data centers containing customer data to unauthorized third parties.
The preliminary settlement was submitted on Friday in Manhattan federal court and awaits the approval of U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres. The terms also include at least two years of fraud insurance coverage for the affected customers and reimbursement of up to $10,000 in out-of-pocket losses.
Notably, Morgan Stanley has denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. Also, the company said that it made significant upgrades to its data security practices.
Stock Rating
Citigroup analyst Keith Horowitz upgraded Morgan Stanley’s rating to Buy from Hold with a price target of $115 (17.2% upside potential).
The rest of the Street is cautiously optimistic about the stock with a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 9 Buys and 6 Holds. The average Morgan Stanley price target of $110.62 implies 12.7% upside potential to current levels.
News Sentiment
News Sentiment for Morgan Stanley is Positive based on 31 articles over the past seven days. All the articles have Bullish sentiment, compared to the sector average of 62%, and none has Bearish Sentiment, compared to the sector average of 38%.
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