MSCI Inc $MSCI Shares Newly Purchased by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 17,970 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,680,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MSCI. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,062,626,000. Bamco Inc. NY acquired a new stake in MSCI in the second quarter valued at $1,798,710,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in MSCI in the second quarter valued at $480,613,000. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in MSCI in the second quarter valued at $301,493,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the second quarter valued at $257,687,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In related news, CFO Andrew Wiechmann sold 450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.00, for a total transaction of $256,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 21,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,337,080. This represents a 2.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, General Counsel Robert Gutowski sold 2,381 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $623.66, for a total transaction of $1,484,934.46. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 14,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,796,100.64. This trade represents a 14.44% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on MSCI shares. William Blair set a $680.00 price target on MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $670.00 to $680.00 in a research note on Monday, October 26th. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $715.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $683.69.

MSCI Trading Up 5.4%

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $674.44 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $572.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $574.41. MSCI Inc has a twelve month low of $501.08 and a twelve month high of $677.62. The company has a market capitalization of $48.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.70, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.20.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 20th. The technology company reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.03 by $0.08. MSCI had a net margin of 40.31% and a negative return on equity of 50.69%. The company had revenue of $892.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $887.83 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.47 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 19.59 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be given a $2.05 dividend. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 13th. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 43.41%.

MSCI Company Profile

MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) is a global provider of investment decision-support tools and services for institutional investors, asset managers, banks and other financial institutions. The company is best known for developing equity, fixed-income and multi-asset indexes used to benchmark portfolios and support the creation of investment products such as exchange-traded funds.

In addition to its indexes, MSCI provides portfolio analytics, risk-management and performance-attribution tools, as well as research and data covering environmental, social and governance factors, climate risk and sustainable investing.