Acadian Asset Management LLC Purchases 41,309 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Key Points

• Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in MSCI Inc by 102.6%, acquiring 41,309 shares during the first quarter, bringing its total holding to 81,582 shares valued at approximately $46.1 million.
• Wall Street analysts are optimistic about MSCI's performance, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $652.45, following upgrades from Raymond James, UBS, and JPMorgan.
• MSCI announced a quarterly dividend payment of $1.80 per share, reflecting an annualized dividend of $7.20 and a yield of 1.3%, with a payout ratio of 47.68%.

Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 102.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 81,582 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 41,309 shares during the quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC owned about 0.11% of MSCI worth $46,122,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,478 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $887,000 after buying an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in shares of MSCI by 43.5% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,352 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,411,000 after buying an additional 713 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC raised its position in shares of MSCI by 125.0% in the fourth quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 99 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of MSCI by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 12,030 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $7,217,000 after buying an additional 1,319 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 25.8% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,322 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $6,193,000 after buying an additional 2,115 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, July 25th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MSCI has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $652.45.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $562.73 on Thursday. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $563.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $559.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.34. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.12 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $763.06 million. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.64 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 84 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $548.69 per share, for a total transaction of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $702,296,314.19. This represents a 0.01% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have acquired a total of 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599 over the last quarter. Insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

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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