Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC Has $826,000 Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 9.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,377 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 143 shares during the period. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $826,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 41,346 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 4.5% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $312,574,000 after acquiring an additional 23,050 shares during the period. Nvwm LLC boosted its position in MSCI by 3,581.3% in the fourth quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,060,000 after purchasing an additional 1,719 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 76.3% in the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,992 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,795,000 after purchasing an additional 1,295 shares during the period. Finally, Alken Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in MSCI in the 4th quarter valued at $660,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Up 0.4%

MSCI stock opened at $566.28 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $548.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $579.32. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $475.32 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.48%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Transactions at MSCI

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

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.