Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Grows Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1,068.8% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 10,367 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 9,480 shares during the period. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $4,994,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth approximately $496,541,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 74.9% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $701,522,000 after buying an additional 623,712 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 129.4% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $352,153,000 after buying an additional 412,389 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its stake in MSCI by 3,600.0% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 253,636 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $143,469,000 after acquiring an additional 246,781 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Findlay Park Partners LLP acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 1st quarter valued at about $114,836,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on MSCI. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays upped their target price on MSCI from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, May 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised MSCI to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $584.79.

MSCI Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of MSCI traded down $1.50 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $580.59. The company had a trading volume of 325,424 shares, compared to its average volume of 570,385. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $617.39. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $527.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $522.18. The stock has a market cap of $46.00 billion, a PE ratio of 39.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.10.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.26 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.78 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.69%.

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.