Ballentine Partners LLC Grows Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Ballentine Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 3.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,748 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,049,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MSCI. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 30.0% in the 3rd quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $329,000 after buying an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 52.4% in the third quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,779 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,203,000 after acquiring an additional 1,299 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of MSCI by 30.9% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,991,000 after purchasing an additional 41,346 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 339.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,642,000 after purchasing an additional 20,730 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $312,574,000 after purchasing an additional 23,050 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on MSCI shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 target price for the company. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.85.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE MSCI opened at $614.25 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $604.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $576.95. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $48.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The business’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

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.