Whalen Wealth Management Inc. Takes Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Whalen Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 440 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $254,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 47.0% during the second quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 97 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 395.8% during the second quarter. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust now owns 119 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.3% during the second quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 10,502 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,057,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 11.3% during the second quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 464 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $268,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. Finally, IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 10.6% during the second quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 499 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $288,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Down 4.6%

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $566.70 on Thursday. MSCI Inc has a twelve month low of $486.73 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $43.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.91, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.33. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $561.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $559.99.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued 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. MSCI had a net margin of 40.03% and a negative return on equity of 110.94%. The company had revenue of $793.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $794.87 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.86 EPS. MSCI’s revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.68%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. One 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. According to MarketBeat, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.