Arkadios Wealth Advisors Buys New Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Arkadios Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 383 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $230,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 1,968 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $251,000 after buying an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp grew its holdings in MSCI by 35.1% during the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA increased its position in MSCI by 35.1% in the 3rd quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 3,325 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,995,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on MSCI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $680.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.85.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $614.58 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $48.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.35, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $604.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $577.21.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.45 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were given a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.