Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Cuts Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lessened its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,664 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 457 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in MSCI were worth $9,999,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. iA Global Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in MSCI by 33.0% in the fourth quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,258 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,355,000 after purchasing an additional 1,801 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in MSCI by 316.7% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 108,486 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $65,093,000 after purchasing an additional 82,451 shares during the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its stake in MSCI by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 31,542 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $18,926,000 after purchasing an additional 401 shares during the last quarter. GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd purchased a new position in MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,812,000. Finally, Vinva Investment Management Ltd boosted its holdings in MSCI by 38.7% in the fourth quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 28,912 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $17,337,000 after acquiring an additional 8,068 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays lowered their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price target 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was acquired 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 directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $562.98 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $43.72 billion, a PE ratio of 40.04, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50 day moving average of $581.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $588.55.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm earned $3.68 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 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.