Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Acquires 266 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. grew its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 14.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,064 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,238,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of MSCI by 30.0% in the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $329,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust raised its holdings in MSCI by 52.4% in the 3rd quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,779 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,000 after acquiring an additional 1,299 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in MSCI by 30.9% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,991,000 after acquiring an additional 41,346 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of MSCI by 4.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $312,574,000 after purchasing an additional 23,050 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 339.6% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,642,000 after purchasing an additional 20,730 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group dropped 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. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on MSCI from $680.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.85.

MSCI Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $620.22 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $604.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $577.47. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.11.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The company had revenue of $724.70 million for 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, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.02%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.