Forsta AP Fonden Decreases Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Forsta AP Fonden cut its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,800 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,400 shares during the quarter. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in MSCI were worth $10,984,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 239,933 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $134,475,000 after buying an additional 21,310 shares in the last quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 18.4% in the 4th quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC now owns 13,720 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,761,000 after buying an additional 2,135 shares in the last quarter. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in MSCI during the 4th quarter valued at $959,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter worth $904,000. Finally, Brevan Howard Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the fourth quarter worth $2,755,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays upped their price target on MSCI from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $584.79.

MSCI Stock Down 0.4 %

MSCI opened at $559.93 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $541.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $522.13. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $617.39. The stock has a market cap of $44.36 billion, a PE ratio of 38.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. The company’s revenue was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.26 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

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.