MSCI Inc $MSCI Shares Sold by LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.

LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. reduced its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 7.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,738 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 281 shares during the period. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $2,156,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 15.4% during the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 142 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. Optivise Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 540 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $306,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 361 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Gries Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Gries Financial LLC now owns 1,505 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $868,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,261 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $713,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on MSCI shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, 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 research note on Friday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $652.45.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 9,916 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 24th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $544.70 per share, for a total transaction of $5,401,245.20. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,867 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $697,143,554.90. The trade was a 0.78% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders have acquired 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Up 0.0%

MSCI stock opened at $560.95 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $43.40 billion, a PE ratio of 37.15, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.33. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $563.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $559.54.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $763.06 million. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.64 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.68%.

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.