MSCI Inc $MSCI Shares Sold by C WorldWide Group Holding A S

C WorldWide Group Holding A S lessened its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,636 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 272 shares during the period. C WorldWide Group Holding A S’s holdings in MSCI were worth $14,209,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Andra AP fonden boosted its holdings in MSCI by 10.8% in the second quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 26,700 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,399,000 after purchasing an additional 2,600 shares during the period. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 4.4% in the second quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 26,695 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,394,000 after purchasing an additional 1,117 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 0.3% in the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 20,495 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,821,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 26.0% in the second quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 660 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $381,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. Finally, Optivise Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 5.2% in the second quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 568 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $328,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MSCI. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Raymond James Financial upgraded MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings downgraded MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $655.90.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $571.85 on Thursday. MSCI Inc has a 1-year low of $486.73 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The stock has a market cap of $42.97 billion, a PE ratio of 36.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.33. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $562.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $561.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.37 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $793.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $794.87 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 110.94% and a net margin of 40.03%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.86 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 45.63%.

MSCI announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to repurchase up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.