Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA Purchases New Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA acquired a new position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 69 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Figure 8 Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new position in MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at $1,180,000. Avestar Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 413 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $248,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position 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 valued at $689,180,000 after purchasing an additional 49,679 shares during the period. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc grew its stake in MSCI by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 21,563 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $12,938,000 after buying an additional 598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Advisors Inc. OK acquired a new position in MSCI during the fourth quarter worth approximately $269,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost 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 approximately $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $572.78 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $602.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $586.05.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 156.08%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.68 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $1.80 dividend. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 45.52%.

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.