Achmea Investment Management B.V. Purchases New Shares in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI)

Achmea Investment Management B.V. acquired a new position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 2,683 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $1,518,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position 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 period. Norges Bank bought a new position in MSCI during the fourth quarter worth about $609,937,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in MSCI by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 853,452 shares of the technology company's stock worth $512,079,000 after purchasing an additional 25,325 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in MSCI by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 784,490 shares of the technology company's stock worth $470,702,000 after purchasing an additional 48,524 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in MSCI by 0.6% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 590,892 shares of the technology company's stock worth $334,149,000 after purchasing an additional 3,335 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company 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. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. 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 for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $645.36.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction 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 of the company's stock, valued at $160,133,398.33. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI traded up $11.21 on Friday, reaching $576.90. The company had a trading volume of 879,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 509,899. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $556.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $571.13. The company has a market cap of $44.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.33. MSCI Inc has a 52-week low of $478.33 and a 52-week high of $642.45.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th were paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 16th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.48%.

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.