AKO Capital LLP Acquires 2,807 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

AKO Capital LLP raised its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 208,903 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,807 shares during the quarter. MSCI accounts for approximately 1.7% of AKO Capital LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. AKO Capital LLP’s holdings in MSCI were worth $125,344,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in MSCI by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,192,364 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,860,925,000 after purchasing an additional 11,351 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,862,362 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,082,594,000 after acquiring an additional 13,691 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in MSCI by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $967,820,000 after acquiring an additional 119,471 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,148,615 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $689,180,000 after acquiring an additional 49,679 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $609,937,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI opened at $565.72 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The business has a 50-day moving average of $579.90 and a 200-day moving average of $588.55. The company has a market capitalization of $43.93 billion, a PE ratio of 40.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 quarter last year, the business earned $3.68 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $1.80 dividend. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.21%.

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.