Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC Invests $5.29 Million in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 9,448 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,291,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 52,714.5% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 60,176,298 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $33,701,134,000 after acquiring an additional 60,062,359 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in MSCI in the second quarter valued at about $3,062,626,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,320,761 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,884,233,000 after purchasing an additional 39,450 shares in the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth about $1,798,710,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,467,556 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,415,713,000 after buying an additional 52,242 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Up 0.7%

MSCI stock opened at $555.30 on Thursday. MSCI Inc has a 52 week low of $501.08 and a 52 week high of $644.77. The stock has a market cap of $40.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.22. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $579.03 and a 200-day moving average of $575.42.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $4.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.99 by ($0.05). MSCI had a negative return on equity of 55.19% and a net margin of 40.74%.The company had revenue of $867.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $870.71 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $4.17 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 19.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th were paid a $2.05 dividend. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 44.86%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on MSCI. UBS Group set a $615.00 target price on MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $735.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $742.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of MSCI from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $690.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and eleven have issued a Buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $709.50.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision-support tools and services for institutional investors, asset managers, wealth managers, banks and other financial institutions. The company is best known for its indexes, which are used to benchmark portfolios and support the design of investment products such as exchange-traded funds and other index-based strategies.

In addition to indexes covering equities, fixed income and other asset classes, MSCI provides portfolio analytics, risk-management tools, performance measurement and investment data.