Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC Has $277,000 Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 20.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 461 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $277,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in MSCI by 15.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 254,415 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $122,577,000 after purchasing an additional 34,351 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its position in shares of MSCI by 12.2% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 2,669 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,246,000 after buying an additional 291 shares during the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 21.9% in the second quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,456 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,665,000 after buying an additional 620 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 4.5% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 5,614 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,705,000 after acquiring an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Trail Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 34.0% in the second quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 686 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $331,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $612.25 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $603.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $575.23. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.98 billion, a PE ratio of 40.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.05%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 42.02%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSCI. 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 for the company. Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.67.

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.