Americana Partners LLC Has $1.46 Million Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Americana Partners LLC reduced its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 5.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,437 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 130 shares during the period. Americana Partners LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,462,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 30.0% in the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $329,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 41,346 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 23,050 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 20,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC grew its position 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on MSCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group dropped their price target on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.23.

MSCI Trading Up 0.1 %

MSCI stock opened at $572.78 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $44.89 billion, a PE ratio of 40.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $601.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $586.86.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.68 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company 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 $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the firm’s 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 purchase, 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 position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.