Vontobel Holding Ltd. Sells 6,080 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lessened its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 17.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 29,527 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 6,080 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $17,716,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.9% during the third quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 1,968 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $251,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. Angeles Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 492 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $295,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,044 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,227,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the period. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 35.1% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

MSCI Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $572.78 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $602.42 and its 200-day moving average is $586.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.74, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.68 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.26%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 45.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MSCI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

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.