Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Buys 98 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 4.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,123 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,274,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 2.6% in 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 last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at $207,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,471 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $857,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 4,032.2% during the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,595 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,096,000 after purchasing an additional 3,508 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wrapmanager Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 15.3% in the third quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,716 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

MSCI Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $568.48 on Wednesday. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $642.45. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $583.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $588.95. The firm has a market cap of $44.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results 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 in the prior year, the firm earned $3.68 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $1.80 dividend. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.