Sustainable Insight Capital Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Sustainable Insight Capital Management LLC trimmed its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 22.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,615 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,585 shares during the period. MSCI comprises about 1.5% of Sustainable Insight Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Sustainable Insight Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $3,273,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in MSCI by 74.9% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $701,522,000 after buying an additional 623,712 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 129.4% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $352,153,000 after acquiring an additional 412,389 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the second quarter worth approximately $91,748,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in MSCI in the first quarter valued at approximately $75,957,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in MSCI by 358.3% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 133,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $77,900,000 after purchasing an additional 104,474 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped 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. Redburn Atlantic upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $631.83.

MSCI Trading Up 3.2 %

NYSE MSCI opened at $594.00 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $46.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.00, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $580.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $532.62. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $631.70.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The firm’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 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.08%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.