Freedom Investment Management Inc. Has $1.84 Million Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Freedom Investment Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 4.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,186 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 134 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,837,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI by 5.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,302,610,000 after buying an additional 518,833 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised 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 worth $365,976,000 after buying an additional 515,713 shares during the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its holdings in MSCI by 605,802.9% during the first quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 212,066 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $129,903,000 after buying an additional 212,031 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in MSCI during the first quarter worth $119,408,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in MSCI during the first quarter worth $117,879,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $647.70.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE MSCI opened at $536.81 on Thursday. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm has a market cap of $41.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.55, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $561.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $558.47.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $772.68 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $763.06 million. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.64 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 84 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $548.69 per share, for a total transaction of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at $702,296,314.19. This represents a 0.01% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

About MSCI

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.