American National Bank & Trust Takes $58,000 Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

American National Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 99 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $58,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI by 74.9% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $701,522,000 after purchasing an additional 623,712 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI by 129.4% in the 2nd 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 period. Findlay Park Partners LLP bought a new position in MSCI in the 1st quarter worth $114,836,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth $91,748,000. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new position in MSCI in the 1st quarter worth $75,957,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MSCI Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $588.31 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $617.39. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $559.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $523.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.11.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 43.69%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on MSCI shares. Barclays raised their target price on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group raised their target price on MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $598.07.

MSCI Company Profile

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.