Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp Makes New Investment in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp purchased a new position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,952 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,108,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in MSCI by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,777,749 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,008,745,000 after buying an additional 109,287 shares during the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 12.6% in the third quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 209,831 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $119,060,000 after acquiring an additional 23,500 shares in the last quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 103.6% during the third quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. now owns 14,958 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $8,490,000 after acquiring an additional 7,613 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in MSCI by 37.7% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 12,228 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,938,000 after purchasing an additional 3,346 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Katamaran Capital LLP purchased a new stake in MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,806,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Andrew C. Wiechmann sold 450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $550.00, for a total value of $247,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 21,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,901,450. This represents a 2.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 10,210 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $536.13 per share, for a total transaction of $5,473,887.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,487,047 shares in the company, valued at $797,250,508.11. This represents a 0.69% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $655.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and set a $715.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded MSCI from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, January 16th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on MSCI from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $690.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $659.00.

MSCI Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $570.45 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $575.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $566.50. MSCI Inc has a twelve month low of $486.73 and a twelve month high of $626.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.36, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.29.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $4.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.62 by $0.04. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 82.59% and a net margin of 38.36%.The business had revenue of $822.53 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $819.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.18 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 reacquire up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 13th will be given a $2.05 dividend. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.80. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 13th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 45.89%.

MSCI Company Profile

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.