E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Trims Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 12.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,153 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 464 shares during the period. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,519,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,719,381 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,886,777,000 after purchasing an additional 36,043 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,734,519 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $972,111,000 after purchasing an additional 9,304 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 74.9% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $701,522,000 after purchasing an additional 623,712 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 1,323,058 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $741,508,000 after purchasing an additional 23,217 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,047,960 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $504,855,000 after purchasing an additional 13,620 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lifted their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $591.00.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $556.38 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $44.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.98, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $545.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $521.49. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.26 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company 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. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. MSCI’s payout ratio 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.