Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Sells 1,893 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 21.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,059 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,893 shares during the quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $4,110,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in MSCI by 499.3% in the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 874,882 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $496,417,000 after purchasing an additional 728,900 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 91.8% during the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 691,554 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $392,395,000 after buying an additional 331,040 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 36.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,069,180 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $606,674,000 after buying an additional 282,859 shares during the period. Banque Pictet & Cie SA lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 103.3% in the fourth quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 523,035 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $300,081,000 after buying an additional 265,750 shares during the period. Finally, Bamco Inc. NY grew its position in MSCI by 10.3% during the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,394,117 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,358,446,000 after buying an additional 223,784 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CFO Andrew C. Wiechmann sold 450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $560.00, for a total transaction of $252,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 22,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,624,640. This trade represents a 1.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Alvise J. Munari sold 10,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $592.04, for a total transaction of $5,920,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 23,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,941,357.92. This trade represents a 29.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 3.76% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on MSCI shares. Evercore upped their price target on MSCI from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings lowered MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $655.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $710.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $545.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $692.70.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $584.68 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $561.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $564.44. The company has a market capitalization of $42.56 billion, a PE ratio of 33.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.24. MSCI Inc has a one year low of $501.08 and a one year high of $626.28.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $4.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $850.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $830.91 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 65.48% and a net margin of 40.74%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $4.00 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 19.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $2.05 per share. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.83%.

MSCI Profile

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.