Forsta AP Fonden Sells 200 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Forsta AP Fonden decreased its position in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.3% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 15,800 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in MSCI were worth $9,112,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,302,610,000 after acquiring an additional 518,833 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,008,778 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $570,464,000 after purchasing an additional 19,846 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 11.9% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 890,123 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $513,370,000 after purchasing an additional 94,466 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in MSCI by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 804,640 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $455,024,000 after purchasing an additional 20,150 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 355.7% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 660,690 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $365,976,000 after purchasing an additional 515,713 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. UBS Group lifted their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $655.90.

MSCI Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $573.33 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $564.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $562.76. The firm has a market cap of $43.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34. MSCI Inc has a 12 month low of $486.73 and a 12 month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.37 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $793.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $794.87 million. MSCI had a net margin of 40.03% and a negative return on equity of 110.94%. The company’s revenue was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.86 EPS. Analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 45.63%.

MSCI announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to repurchase up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

MSCI 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.