Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC Takes $217,000 Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 361 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,897,456 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,136,563,000 after purchasing an additional 35,094 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in MSCI by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $967,820,000 after buying an additional 119,471 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp raised its holdings in MSCI by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,148,615 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $689,180,000 after acquiring an additional 49,679 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter worth $609,937,000. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 853,452 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $512,079,000 after acquiring an additional 25,325 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on MSCI shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $647.31.

MSCI Trading Down 6.7 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $507.57 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $572.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $588.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.41 billion, a PE ratio of 36.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.68 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.42%. 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. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

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.