Handelsbanken Fonder AB Sells 2,682 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB cut its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 13.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 17,674 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 2,682 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in MSCI were worth $9,997,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bamco Inc. NY grew its holdings in MSCI by 0.7% during the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,260,105 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,159,615,000 after purchasing an additional 15,184 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 1.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,893,728 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $971,634,000 after purchasing an additional 30,528 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 14.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,460,634 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $749,422,000 after acquiring an additional 179,508 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 32.5% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 959,894 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $492,502,000 after acquiring an additional 235,290 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 767,297 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $393,686,000 after acquiring an additional 7,183 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MSCI shares. Bank of America cut their price target on MSCI from $530.00 to $425.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Redburn Atlantic lowered MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $620.00 to $470.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays cut their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group cut their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $562.87.

MSCI Trading Up 4.2 %

MSCI opened at $464.81 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $36.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.06. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $545.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $538.56. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 111.33% and a net margin of 44.55%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.14 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.38%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.69%.

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.