BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S Takes $835,000 Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S purchased a new stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,489 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $835,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,725,215 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $976,009,000 after purchasing an additional 151,108 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,460,634 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $749,422,000 after acquiring an additional 179,508 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,038,761 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $587,575,000 after acquiring an additional 44,234 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 32.5% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 959,894 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $492,502,000 after purchasing an additional 235,290 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in MSCI in the fourth quarter worth $496,541,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MSCI. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $571.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit acquired 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $133,705,767.58. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other MSCI news, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $459.41 per share, with a total value of $3,445,575.00. Following the acquisition, the chief operating officer now owns 291,038 shares in the company, valued at $133,705,767.58. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 13,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $465.92 per share, with a total value of $6,056,960.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at $152,579,015.68. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE MSCI traded up $1.31 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $490.38. 95,004 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 578,932. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $617.39. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $487.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $528.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.10.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.08. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 121.86% and a net margin of 44.55%. The company had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.14 earnings per share. MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

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.