MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Purchased by Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC

Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,243 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,346,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in MSCI by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,192,364 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,860,925,000 after acquiring an additional 11,351 shares in the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC grew its position in MSCI by 16.9% in the third quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,279,904,000 after acquiring an additional 318,214 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in MSCI by 0.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,862,362 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,082,594,000 after acquiring an additional 13,691 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in MSCI by 14.3% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $925,531,000 after acquiring an additional 198,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in MSCI by 2.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $870,627,000 after acquiring an additional 37,340 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on MSCI. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Redburn Atlantic upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group reduced their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.23.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $590.36 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $606.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $581.51. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.27 billion, a PE ratio of 41.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 168.58% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.68 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 45.52%.

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.