Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Purchases 14,126 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 144.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 23,926 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 14,126 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec's holdings in MSCI were worth $14,356,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 4th quarter worth approximately $825,000. Voleon Capital Management LP bought a new stake in MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at about $424,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 54.3% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 144,977 shares of the technology company's stock worth $86,988,000 after purchasing an additional 50,997 shares during the period. Hhlr Advisors LTD. acquired a new position in MSCI during the 4th quarter valued at $2,190,000. Finally, Candlestick Capital Management LP lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 141.4% in the fourth quarter. Candlestick Capital Management LP now owns 110,428 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $66,258,000 after buying an additional 64,688 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at MSCI

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer restated a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 price target on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $645.36.

MSCI Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of MSCI stock traded up $7.73 on Wednesday, hitting $552.90. The stock had a trading volume of 339,757 shares, compared to its average volume of 530,622. The firm has a market cap of $42.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.32, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $468.43 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $550.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $580.68.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.30%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.48%.

MSCI 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.