Center for Financial Planning Inc. Purchases New Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Center for Financial Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 145 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $87,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in MSCI by 30.0% during 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 during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in MSCI by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,991,000 after buying an additional 41,346 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in MSCI by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $312,574,000 after buying an additional 23,050 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its position in MSCI by 339.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,642,000 after buying an additional 20,730 shares during the period. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 176.2% during the 3rd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $921,000 after purchasing an additional 1,008 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on MSCI shares. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays reduced their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $572.78 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $602.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $586.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.89 billion, a PE ratio of 40.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced 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 last year, the business earned $3.68 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.26%. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.52%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.