Fiduciary Trust Co Boosts Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Fiduciary Trust Co raised its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 20.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,661 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 629 shares during the period. Fiduciary Trust Co's holdings in MSCI were worth $2,197,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,897,456 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,136,563,000 after purchasing an additional 35,094 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in MSCI by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company's stock worth $967,820,000 after acquiring an additional 119,471 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp grew its position in MSCI by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,148,615 shares of the technology company's stock worth $689,180,000 after acquiring an additional 49,679 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in MSCI during the 4th quarter worth approximately $609,937,000. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in MSCI by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 853,452 shares of the technology company's stock worth $512,079,000 after acquiring an additional 25,325 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays lowered their price objective on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. 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. Bank of America assumed coverage on MSCI in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $645.36.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI traded up $2.41 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $566.28. 445,153 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 525,301. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $548.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $579.41. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $475.32 and a 52-week high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $43.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.28, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $746.45 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given 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 1.27%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.