Morgan Stanley (MS) Drastically Lifts Client Cap on Facebook (FB) IPO Shares Ahead of Debut

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) shares are trading higher following a UBS upgrade earlier, though some sentiment might be attributed to the following bit o' information.

According to Reuters, Morgan Stanley increased the amount of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) shares its giving advisors the ability to allocate to client accounts by ten times! That's right. From an initial upper-limit of 500 shares per account, that restriction has now been moved to 5,000 shares.

Reuters said people for Morgan Stanley, Citigroup (NYSE: C), and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney did not comment on the rumor.

By contrast, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Merrill Lynch capped the number at 2,000 per client.

Why Morgan Stanley decided to lift the cap so dramatically is unclear. It could be due to advisor complaints or simply that it has a lot of stock to get rid of.

Morgan Stanley, along with JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) and BofA are lead underwriters on the IPO. There are 30 other firms participating.

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