Atomi Financial Group Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Atomi Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 113.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,094 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 582 shares during the period. Atomi Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $657,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in MSCI by 4.5% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 5,614 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,705,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 124,701 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $61,103,000 after buying an additional 19,611 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at $870,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its position in shares of MSCI by 60.7% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 15,173 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,310,000 after buying an additional 5,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 10.2% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 68,230 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,870,000 after acquiring an additional 6,292 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on MSCI from $680.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.85.

MSCI Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $614.58 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $48.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $604.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $577.21.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. The company had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.45 earnings per share. MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.