Avestar Capital LLC Grows Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Avestar Capital LLC grew its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 413 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 37 shares during the quarter. Avestar Capital LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $248,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Edgewood Management LLC grew its position in MSCI by 16.9% in the 3rd quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,279,904,000 after acquiring an additional 318,214 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 198,666 shares during the period. Canoe Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 700.4% in the fourth quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 186,131 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $111,680,000 after purchasing an additional 162,877 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in MSCI by 358.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 133,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $77,900,000 after buying an additional 104,474 shares during the period. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $56,101,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

MSCI Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $572.78 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $44.89 billion, a PE ratio of 40.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $642.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $601.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $586.26.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.68 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.52%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were purchased 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 directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.