Bridgewater Advisors Inc. Acquires Shares of 436 MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI)

Bridgewater Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 436 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $236,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MSCI. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its position in shares of MSCI by 23.2% during the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 812 shares of the technology company's stock worth $459,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 336.4% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 96 shares of the technology company's stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund increased its position in shares of MSCI by 43.4% during the fourth quarter. United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund now owns 78,111 shares of the technology company's stock worth $46,867,000 after acquiring an additional 23,649 shares during the period. Rathbones Group PLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 59,741 shares of the technology company's stock worth $35,845,000 after acquiring an additional 2,123 shares during the period. Finally, NorthRock Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter worth approximately $556,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MSCI. Oppenheimer reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $530.00 to $578.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 target price for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $651.55.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE:MSCI traded down $2.62 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $577.56. 584,883 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 510,589. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $566.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $568.17. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.74 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $44.69 billion, a PE ratio of 39.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.32.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. MSCI had a net margin of 39.08% and a negative return on equity of 145.52%. The business had revenue of $745.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $746.45 million. On average, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. MSCI's payout ratio is currently 49.48%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the 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 sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 289,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $160,133,398.33. This represents a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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.