First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Purchases 244 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 28.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,107 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $626,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Optiver Holding B.V. acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 5,600.0% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 57 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Headinvest LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in MSCI in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC increased its position in MSCI by 23.5% in the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 100 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit bought 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief operating officer now owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $133,705,767.58. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 13,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at $152,579,015.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit acquired 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $459.41 per share, with a total value of $3,445,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $133,705,767.58. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group reduced their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, April 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $526.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $671.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic lowered MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $620.00 to $470.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $569.53.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $467.04 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $532.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $536.09. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $617.39. The firm has a market cap of $37.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.09.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 121.86% and a net margin of 44.55%. The company had revenue of $680.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.14 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.66 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.69%.

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.