Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Sells 54 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. decreased its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 8.1% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 609 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 54 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $293,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 9.7% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 239,933 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $134,475,000 after buying an additional 21,310 shares during the period. Evoke Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC now owns 13,720 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,761,000 after buying an additional 2,135 shares in the last quarter. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth approximately $959,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the 4th quarter worth $904,000. Finally, Brevan Howard Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the 4th quarter worth $2,755,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group increased their target price on MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Argus raised their price objective on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $591.00.

MSCI Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $551.71 on Thursday. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $617.39. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $546.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $521.70. The company has a market cap of $43.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $696.41 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.26 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.79 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.16%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.69%.

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.