Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Sells 12,566 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. cut its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 7.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 166,148 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 12,566 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $99,690,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.6% during the third 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. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its position in MSCI by 32.1% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 107 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $62,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its stake in MSCI by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 701 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $409,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 35.1% during the 3rd quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Qsemble Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter worth $210,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $565.72 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $43.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.24, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $579.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $588.55. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 previous year, the firm posted $3.68 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This is a positive change 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 dividend yield of 1.27%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.21%.

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.