Stifel Financial Corp Buys 2,743 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 10.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,791 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 2,743 shares during the quarter. Stifel Financial Corp’s holdings in MSCI were worth $16,806,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in MSCI in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new position in MSCI in the third quarter valued at about $38,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the second quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the third quarter worth about $40,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on MSCI shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group lowered their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $628.81 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $49.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.10. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $635.74. The business’s 50 day moving average is $596.41 and its 200-day moving average is $551.26.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.45 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate 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.