DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Decreases Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale trimmed its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 58,688 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 5,939 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in MSCI were worth $28,557,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 4th quarter valued at about $496,541,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 74.9% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $701,522,000 after purchasing an additional 623,712 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 129.4% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $352,153,000 after purchasing an additional 412,389 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 3,600.0% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 253,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $143,469,000 after buying an additional 246,781 shares during the period. Finally, Findlay Park Partners LLP bought a new stake in MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at $114,836,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MSCI Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $561.93 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $617.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $542.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $521.84.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $696.41 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. MSCI’s revenue was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.26 EPS. Analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.69%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSCI. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Argus boosted their price target on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Barclays increased their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group lifted their price objective on MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.00.

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.