Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Increases Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 17.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 2,730 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 412 shares during the quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,638,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Natural Investments LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI during the fourth quarter worth about $2,172,000. AGF Management Ltd. increased its position in MSCI by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 1,561 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $937,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. GC Wealth Management RIA LLC purchased a new position in MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $210,000. Donaldson Capital Management LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 9,763 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,858,000 after buying an additional 302 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its position in MSCI by 75.1% during the fourth quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 1,900 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,140,000 after buying an additional 815 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays decreased their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $554.92 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $43.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $584.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $589.09. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.68 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.30%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.21%.

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.