Stock Alert: Eaton Vance Shares Hit 52-Week High

(RTTNews) - Shares of Eaton Vance Corp. (EV) reached a 52-week high of $60.75 Thursday morning, after Morgan Stanley (MS) announced that it would acquire Eaton Vance for an equity value of about $7 billion. EV shares are currently trading at $60.25, up $19.31 or 47.17% in Thursday's regular trading session.

Eaton Vance is a provider of investment strategies and wealth management solutions with over $500 billion in assets under management or AUM.

According to Morgan Stanley, the acquisition advances its strategic transformation with three businesses of scale: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management.

The companies expect the acquisition to close in the second quarter of 2021. Following the acquisition, Morgan Stanley Investment Management or MSIM would be a leading asset manager with about $1.2 trillion of AUM and over $5 billion of combined revenues.

Under the terms of the merger deal, Eaton Vance shareholders would receive $28.25 per share in cash and 0.5833x of Morgan Stanley common stock for a total consideration of about $56.50 per share.

Based on the $56.50 per share, the aggregate consideration paid to holders of Eaton Vance's common stock would consist of about 50% cash and 50% Morgan Stanley common stock.

Eaton Vance common shareholders will also receive a one-time special cash dividend of $4.25 per share to be paid pre-closing by the company to its common shareholders from existing balance sheet resources.