Raiffeisen Bank International AG Acquires Shares of 172,474 MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Raiffeisen Bank International AG purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 172,474 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $103,424,000. MSCI makes up 1.6% of Raiffeisen Bank International AG’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake 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 valued at $104,991,000 after purchasing an additional 41,346 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in MSCI by 4.5% in the third 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 lifted its position in MSCI by 3,581.3% during 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 boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 76.3% during the 4th 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, Alken Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 4th quarter worth about $660,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MSCI. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays dropped their price objective on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 price target on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $645.36.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total transaction of $2,762,950.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 289,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $160,133,398.33. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $566.28 on Thursday. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $475.32 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $43.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $548.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $579.32.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 49.48%.

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.