Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. Has $986,000 Stock Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. cut its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 61.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,738 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 2,744 shares during the quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $986,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Intact Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in MSCI by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 138 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $80,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.7% in the second quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,772 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,599,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance increased its position in MSCI by 4.3% during the third quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 509 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $289,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 3,300 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,872,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the period. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.9% during the third quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,107 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $628,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 10,210 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $536.13 per share, with a total value of $5,473,887.30. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,487,047 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $797,250,508.11. This represents a 0.69% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Andrew C. Wiechmann sold 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $550.00, for a total transaction of $247,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 21,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,901,450. The trade was a 2.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 19,300 shares of company stock valued at $10,261,957. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $715.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $700.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on MSCI from $590.00 to $618.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $671.78.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $557.71 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.55, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $572.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $565.08. MSCI Inc has a 52-week low of $486.73 and a 52-week high of $626.28.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $4.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $819.51 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.18 EPS. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 13th will be issued a $2.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 13th. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.80. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.26%.

MSCI 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.