Portside Wealth Group LLC Raises Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Portside Wealth Group LLC grew its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 55.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,699 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 2,761 shares during the quarter. MSCI accounts for 0.8% of Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $4,488,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in MSCI in the second quarter worth $26,000. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI in the first quarter valued at about $34,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI in the second quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, American National Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the third quarter worth about $58,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on MSCI shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 target price for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Up 0.1 %

MSCI opened at $575.66 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $631.70. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $580.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $531.77. The company has a market cap of $45.12 billion, a PE ratio of 37.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.45 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.95 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.11%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

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.