Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $2.72 Million in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 4,800 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,715,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MSCI. RB Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 16.5% during the 1st quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $642,000 after acquiring an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Markel Corp lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Markel Corp now owns 141,700 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $71,258,000 after buying an additional 4,700 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 42.2% during the 1st quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,237 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $622,000 after buying an additional 367 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 1,831 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $921,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at $701,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Down 2.6 %

MSCI stock opened at $513.06 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $558.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $539.26. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $451.55 and a twelve month high of $617.39. The company has a market cap of $40.64 billion, a PE ratio of 35.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.29 by $0.39. MSCI had a net margin of 45.42% and a negative return on equity of 111.17%. The firm had revenue of $690.11 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $662.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.84 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 44.44%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $600.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $544.00 to $617.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $581.57.

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.