Qsemble Capital Management LP Purchases Shares of 361 MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Qsemble Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 361 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $210,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Edgewood Management LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 16.9% in the third 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 position in shares of 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 worth $925,531,000 after purchasing an additional 198,666 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 2.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $870,627,000 after purchasing an additional 37,340 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 1.3% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,047,960 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $504,855,000 after purchasing an additional 13,620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 129.4% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $352,153,000 after purchasing an additional 412,389 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $604.96 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $631.70. The company has a market cap of $47.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $589.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $544.93.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released 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. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.45 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.06%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MSCI. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $631.83.

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.