Insider Selling: MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) General Counsel Sells $1,484,934.46 in Stock

MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) General Counsel Robert Gutowski sold 2,381 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $623.66, for a total value of $1,484,934.46. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 14,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,796,100.64. This trade represents a 14.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

MSCI Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of MSCI stock traded up $2.79 on Monday, hitting $618.41. 532,773 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 639,919. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.24. MSCI Inc has a fifty-two week low of $501.08 and a fifty-two week high of $644.77. The business has a 50-day moving average of $562.17 and a 200 day moving average of $577.65.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 20th. The technology company reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.03 by $0.08. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 50.69% and a net margin of 40.31%. The firm had revenue of $892.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $887.83 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $4.47 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 19.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be given a $2.05 dividend. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 13th. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 43.41%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MSCI

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Burkett Financial Services LLC raised its position in MSCI by 200.0% during the third quarter. Burkett Financial Services LLC now owns 48 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Compound Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the 1st quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Washington Trust Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $680.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Evercore set a $722.00 price target on shares of MSCI and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $655.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $680.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. Finally, William Blair set a $680.00 price objective on MSCI in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $682.12.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) is a global provider of investment decision-support tools and services for institutional investors, asset managers, banks and other financial institutions. The company is best known for developing equity, fixed-income and multi-asset indexes used to benchmark portfolios and support the creation of investment products such as exchange-traded funds.

In addition to its indexes, MSCI provides portfolio analytics, risk-management and performance-attribution tools, as well as research and data covering environmental, social and governance factors, climate risk and sustainable investing.