Ashton Thomas Securities LLC Takes $40,000 Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 68 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $91,748,000. Grove Bank & Trust raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 52.4% in the third quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,779 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,000 after buying an additional 1,299 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its position in MSCI by 313.9% during the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 30,456 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $17,069,000 after buying an additional 23,097 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA bought a new stake in MSCI during the 1st quarter worth about $778,000. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC increased its position in MSCI by 207.9% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 2,956 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,657,000 after acquiring an additional 1,996 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MSCI Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $610.53 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $47.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.09, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $631.70. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $581.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $535.52.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.45 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.05%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 target price on the stock. Argus lifted their target price on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $631.83.

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.