Stockpickr: Trade Like Morgan Stanley

In "Trade Like Goldman Sachs", a Stockpickr column I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I offered some of the bank's picks and pans gleaned from its various trading groups, analysts and funds. Morgan Stanley(MS Quote) is another investment firm that's equally as useful to follow.

Morgan's analysts and research are top notch, and its mutual funds rank among the highest-rated funds. As the prime broker and institutional broker for many of the world's top hedge funds and mutual funds, Morgan has access to the information flow of the best of the best. On top of that, the company is involved in many of the market's largest initial public offerings and deals.

Here are some of the Morgan Stanley-related portfolios that I track on Stockpickr:

• Morgan Stanley Focus List: These are the combined 10 best picks of all of Morgan's analysts. What's important about its focus list this year is that the firm is neutral on equities, so, given that stance, it's enlightening to see which equities it believes will still outperform.
• The portfolios of some of its best mutual funds:
• Morgan Stanley Institutional Small Company Growth Portfolio: These are the small-cap stocks with fast earnings growth that Morgan expects will see continued growth in the years ahead.
• Morgan Stanley Financial Services Fund: If anyone knows financial services, it's Morgan Stanley. This fund was up 17% last year and 10.3% a year over the past five years.
• Morgan Stanley LBO Candidates: Morgan ran a screen to identify potential leveraged-buyout candidates. The screen -- which looks for beaten-up stocks with lots of cash, reasonable debt levels and strong cash flows -- was featured in the Dec. 10, 2006, issue of Barron's.
• Morgan Stanley's Favorite Dividend Plays: Chief U.S. strategist Henry McVey believes retiring baby boomers are going to start positioning their accounts for income rather than asset accumulation and that they'll go after stocks with high yields and strong earnings growth. The top 25 stocks he identifies are listed in this portfolio, based on yield.

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