BDF Gestion Has $1.60 Million Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

BDF Gestion cut its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 11.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,668 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 349 shares during the quarter. BDF Gestion’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,601,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Edgewood Management LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,279,904,000 after purchasing an additional 318,214 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in MSCI by 14.3% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $925,531,000 after acquiring an additional 198,666 shares during the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP grew its position in MSCI by 700.4% in the fourth quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 186,131 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $111,680,000 after acquiring an additional 162,877 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 358.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 133,636 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $77,900,000 after purchasing an additional 104,474 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at $56,101,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays decreased their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

MSCI Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $590.36 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.99, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $642.45. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $606.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $581.51.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 168.58%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.68 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $1.80 dividend. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.52%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.