Bamco Inc. NY Sells 25,500 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Bamco Inc. NY reduced its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,131,931 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 25,500 shares during the period. MSCI makes up 3.3% of Bamco Inc. NY's portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Bamco Inc. NY owned approximately 2.72% of MSCI worth $1,279,180,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in MSCI by 30.9% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company's stock worth $104,991,000 after acquiring an additional 41,346 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in MSCI by 4.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company's stock worth $312,574,000 after acquiring an additional 23,050 shares during the period. Nvwm LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 3,581.3% in the fourth quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,060,000 after acquiring an additional 1,719 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 76.3% in the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,992 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,795,000 after acquiring an additional 1,295 shares during the period. Finally, Threadgill Financial LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 255.4% during the 4th quarter. Threadgill Financial LLC now owns 1,283 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $770,000 after purchasing an additional 922 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MSCI. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 target price for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $645.36.

Insider Activity

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total transaction of $2,762,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 289,787 shares in the company, valued at $160,133,398.33. This trade represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE:MSCI traded up $7.73 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $552.90. The company's stock had a trading volume of 339,757 shares, compared to its average volume of 529,334. The company has a market capitalization of $42.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $550.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $580.68. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $468.43 and a 12 month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.88 by $0.12. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. The business had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $746.45 million. As a group, analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.30%. MSCI's payout ratio is presently 49.48%.

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.