Pitcairn Co. Sells 17 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Pitcairn Co. decreased its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 901 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 17 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $525,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MSCI. Edgewood Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 16.9% in the third quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,279,904,000 after buying an additional 318,214 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in MSCI by 14.3% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $925,531,000 after acquiring an additional 198,666 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $870,627,000 after purchasing an additional 37,340 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,047,960 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $504,855,000 after purchasing an additional 13,620 shares during the period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI by 129.4% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $352,153,000 after purchasing an additional 412,389 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MSCI Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $592.70 on Tuesday. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $631.70. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $586.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $543.26. The company has a market cap of $46.45 billion, a PE ratio of 38.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.45 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.02%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MSCI. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Barclays lifted their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group dropped their price target on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price objective for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $631.83.

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.