MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Bought by Lido Advisors LLC

Lido Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 22.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,157 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 211 shares during the period. Lido Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $694,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 30.9% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,991,000 after purchasing an additional 41,346 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in MSCI by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $312,574,000 after purchasing an additional 23,050 shares in the last quarter. Nvwm LLC raised its holdings in MSCI by 3,581.3% in the fourth quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,060,000 after buying an additional 1,719 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 76.3% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,992 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,795,000 after buying an additional 1,295 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Threadgill Financial LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 255.4% during the fourth quarter. Threadgill Financial LLC now owns 1,283 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $770,000 after buying an additional 922 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $645.36.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI opened at $555.58 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $468.43 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.99 billion, a PE ratio of 39.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $551.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $581.50.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.48%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total transaction of $2,621,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 294,787 shares in the company, valued at approximately $154,542,084.75. This represents a 1.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale 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.