Captrust Financial Advisors Increases Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 43.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,352 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 713 shares during the quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors' holdings in MSCI were worth $1,411,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of MSCI by 30.9% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company's stock worth $104,991,000 after purchasing an additional 41,346 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 23,050 shares during the last quarter. Nvwm LLC increased 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 worth $1,060,000 after purchasing an additional 1,719 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,295 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of MSCI by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 16,993 shares of the technology company's stock worth $10,196,000 after purchasing an additional 972 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other MSCI news, 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 bought at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total value of $2,621,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 294,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at $154,542,084.75. The trade was a 1.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. 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 objective on the stock. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $645.36.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $564.15 on Wednesday. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $475.32 and a 52-week high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33. The company's 50 day moving average price is $548.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $579.41.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 firm had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $746.45 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is 49.48%.

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.

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