MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Sold by Covestor Ltd

Covestor Ltd decreased its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 14.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 208 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 36 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd’s holdings in MSCI were worth $125,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $623.00 to $532.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America initiated coverage on MSCI in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 price target on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $646.58.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were purchased 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 in the company, valued at $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total value of $2,621,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 294,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $154,542,084.75. The trade was a 1.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE MSCI opened at $542.26 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $562.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $586.71. The company has a market capitalization of $42.11 billion, a PE ratio of 38.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.68 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.21%.

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.