MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Sold by Sanctuary Advisors LLC

Sanctuary Advisors LLC lowered its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 6,329 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 83 shares during the quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $3,739,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 30.0% in the 3rd quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $329,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in MSCI by 30.9% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $104,991,000 after acquiring an additional 41,346 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in MSCI by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $312,574,000 after acquiring an additional 23,050 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 339.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,642,000 after acquiring an additional 20,730 shares during the period. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 176.2% in the 3rd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $921,000 after acquiring an additional 1,008 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Up 0.8 %

NYSE MSCI opened at $578.71 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $597.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $587.09. The firm has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a PE ratio of 41.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.68 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Company 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.