Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Sells 59 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC decreased its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 13,390 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 59 shares during the period. MSCI makes up approximately 1.1% of Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $8,034,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 30.0% during the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $329,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in MSCI by 30.9% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,991,000 after acquiring an additional 41,346 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in MSCI by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $312,574,000 after buying an additional 23,050 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 339.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,642,000 after buying an additional 20,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 176.2% during the 3rd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $921,000 after buying an additional 1,008 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was purchased 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 directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays dropped their target price 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. Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

MSCI Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $578.71 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $596.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $587.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.68 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $1.80 dividend. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.21%.

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.