PFG Advisors Acquires 1,428 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

PFG Advisors lifted its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 30.7% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,080 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,428 shares during the period. PFG Advisors’ holdings in MSCI were worth $3,507,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in MSCI by 5.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,302,610,000 after purchasing an additional 518,833 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 2.0% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,008,778 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $570,464,000 after purchasing an additional 19,846 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 11.9% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 890,123 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $513,370,000 after purchasing an additional 94,466 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.6% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 804,640 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $455,024,000 after purchasing an additional 20,150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 355.7% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 660,690 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $365,976,000 after buying an additional 515,713 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI opened at $582.50 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.77 billion, a PE ratio of 36.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34. The business’s 50-day moving average is $562.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $561.89. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 45.63%.

MSCI announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on MSCI shares. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $655.90.

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.