Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Has $3.86 Million Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lowered its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 5.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,830 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 372 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in MSCI were worth $3,864,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Optiver Holding B.V. acquired a new stake in MSCI during the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Headinvest LLC bought a new stake in MSCI during the third quarter worth $30,000. American National Bank lifted its stake in MSCI by 1,300.0% during the fourth quarter. American National Bank now owns 70 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. First United Bank & Trust bought a new stake in MSCI during the fourth quarter worth $48,000. Finally, Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 36.1% during the fourth quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC now owns 98 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on MSCI shares. Wolfe Research started coverage on MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Bank of America upgraded MSCI from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $425.00 to $525.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on MSCI from $671.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $570.53.

MSCI Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $476.52 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $490.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $532.95. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $617.39. The company has a market cap of $37.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.53, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $680.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 121.86% and a net margin of 44.55%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.14 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.34%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.69%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 13,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at approximately $152,579,015.68. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 327,479 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $152,579,015.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $459.41 per share, with a total value of $3,445,575.00. Following the purchase, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $133,705,767.58. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides critical decision support tools and solutions for the investment community to manage investment processes worldwide. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed financial product, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, and over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct.