PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Trims Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,003 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 531 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $10,202,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. LRI Investments LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 120.0% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp grew its holdings in MSCI by 35.1% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

MSCI Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $542.79 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $587.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $589.86. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The firm has a market cap of $42.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19.

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

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was acquired at an average cost 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 directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 3.20% 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.