Bridgefront Capital LLC Boosts Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Bridgefront Capital LLC grew its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 78.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,398 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 616 shares during the quarter. Bridgefront Capital LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $839,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in MSCI by 30.9% during 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 period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in MSCI by 4.5% in the third 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. Nvwm LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 3,581.3% in the 4th quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,060,000 after buying an additional 1,719 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC raised its position in MSCI by 76.3% during the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,992 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,795,000 after buying an additional 1,295 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Threadgill Financial LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 255.4% during the 4th quarter. Threadgill Financial LLC now owns 1,283 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $770,000 after acquiring an additional 922 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays lowered their price objective on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.36.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $555.58 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $468.43 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $551.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $581.33.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $746.45 million. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. On average, research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.30%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.48%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total transaction of $2,621,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 294,787 shares in the company, valued at $154,542,084.75. This represents a 1.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by 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.