PineStone Asset Management Inc. Purchases 84,354 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 17.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 569,374 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 84,354 shares during the quarter. MSCI accounts for about 3.2% of PineStone Asset Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest position. PineStone Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $341,630,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. State Street Corp lifted its stake in MSCI by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,192,364 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,860,925,000 after purchasing an additional 11,351 shares during the period. Edgewood Management LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,279,904,000 after buying an additional 318,214 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,862,362 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,082,594,000 after buying an additional 13,691 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position 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 period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in MSCI by 2.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $870,627,000 after acquiring an additional 37,340 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value 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 approximately $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI opened at $572.78 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $44.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $602.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $586.05.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company posted $3.68 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 45.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays decreased their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group cut their price objective on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.23.

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.