Nordea Investment Management AB Sells 180,408 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Nordea Investment Management AB cut its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 22.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 641,470 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 180,408 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in MSCI were worth $365,702,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Olde Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in MSCI in the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 136.4% in the 1st quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 52 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Steph & Co. bought a new position in MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 50.0% in the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 66 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Transatlantique SA boosted its holdings in MSCI by 355.6% in the 1st quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA now owns 82 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 9,916 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $544.70 per share, for a total transaction of $5,401,245.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,867 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $697,143,554.90. The trade was a 0.78% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have bought a total of 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599 in the last 90 days. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

MSCI Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $533.72 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $41.29 billion, a PE ratio of 35.35, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s fifty day moving average is $563.25 and its 200 day moving average is $558.78. MSCI Inc has a 52 week low of $486.73 and a 52 week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.12 by $0.05. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The firm had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $763.06 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.64 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 47.68%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $647.70.

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.