Dark Forest Capital Management LP Decreases Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP lowered its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 37.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,096 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 666 shares during the quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP's holdings in MSCI were worth $658,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. 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 valued at $870,627,000 after acquiring an additional 37,340 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its stake in MSCI by 26.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 919 shares of the technology company's stock worth $536,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 76.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,209 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $7,117,000 after acquiring an additional 5,283 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp increased its position in MSCI by 47.5% in the third quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 975 shares of the technology company's stock worth $568,000 after purchasing an additional 314 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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 purchasing an additional 23,050 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on MSCI shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays lowered their price target on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 price objective on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $645.36.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE MSCI traded up $0.61 on Wednesday, reaching $541.07. 191,097 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 539,392. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $458.69 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $41.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.47, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $553.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $582.76.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 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 firm had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $746.45 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.48%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the business'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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 294,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $154,542,084.75. The trade was a 1.67 % 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 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.