MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Sold by Private Advisor Group LLC

Private Advisor Group LLC trimmed its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 24.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 717 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 228 shares during the quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $430,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stephens Inc. AR lifted its stake in MSCI by 43.5% during the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 3,303 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,925,000 after buying an additional 1,001 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 20.2% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 791 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $461,000 after buying an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI during the third quarter valued at about $254,000. Angeles Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 7.0% during the third quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 475 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $277,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its stake in MSCI by 1.8% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 45,550 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $26,552,000 after buying an additional 814 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $587.87 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $593.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $590.05. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $45.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.68 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.