Bourgeon Capital Management LLC Purchases New Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Bourgeon Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 948 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $569,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.9% during the third quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 1,968 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $251,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the period. Planning Capital Management Corp boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 35.1% during the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 35.1% in the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 3,325 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,995,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE MSCI opened at $617.34 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.38 billion, a PE ratio of 40.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $604.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $576.09. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 target price for the company. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.85.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.