State of Alaska Department of Revenue Has $6.79 Million Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue reduced its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,315 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in MSCI were worth $6,788,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. LRI Investments LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 120.0% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new position in MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in MSCI during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Planning Capital Management Corp raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 35.1% in the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 35.1% in the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MSCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.23.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Down 1.4 %

MSCI stock opened at $579.13 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $605.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $584.53. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $45.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.19, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.68 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.21%.

MSCI 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.