Crewe Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 60 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,719,381 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,886,777,000 after acquiring an additional 36,043 shares during the period. 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 buying an additional 151,108 shares during the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 1,323,058 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $741,508,000 after buying an additional 23,217 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,038,761 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $587,575,000 after buying an additional 44,234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $496,541,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MSCI news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.69, for a total transaction of $4,245,210.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,831 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,052,254.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Up 0.8 %

MSCI stock traded up $4.29 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $538.49. 586,389 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 591,706. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $617.39. The company has a market cap of $42.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $494.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $524.57.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 139.63% and a net margin of 43.86%. The business had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.26 EPS. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 43.69%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $589.79.

About MSCI

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.