Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Reduces Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA reduced its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 22.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,232,356 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 355,367 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in MSCI were worth $739,426,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LRI Investments LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 120.0% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA acquired a new position in MSCI during the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. Y.D. More Investments Ltd lifted its stake in MSCI by 122.7% in the fourth quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 98 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $60,000. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA grew its position in shares of MSCI by 46.8% during the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 113 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on MSCI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of 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 MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays decreased their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research 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, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $576.39 on Thursday. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $44.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a fifty day moving average of $576.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $588.91.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 earned $3.68 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 51.21%.

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.