BNP Paribas Increases Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Key Points

• BNP Paribas increased its stake in MSCI by 38.3% in Q3, buying 2,293 shares to hold 8,276 shares worth about $4.7 million.
• Other large institutions—including Vanguard, State Street, Bamco, Principal and JPMorgan—also raised positions, leaving hedge funds and institutional investors with roughly 89.97% ownership of MSCI.
• Analysts are broadly positive with a consensus Moderate Buy and a $671.78 average price target; MSCI slightly beat quarterly EPS and raised its quarterly dividend to $2.05 (annualized $8.20, ~1.5% yield).

BNP Paribas increased its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 38.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,276 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 2,293 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas' holdings in MSCI were worth $4,704,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in MSCI by 1.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,674,093 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $5,489,177,000 after purchasing an additional 165,851 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,281,311 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,892,463,000 after buying an additional 45,547 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,170,333 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,251,718,000 after buying an additional 98,680 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,777,749 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,008,745,000 after buying an additional 109,287 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 36.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,069,180 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $606,674,000 after buying an additional 282,859 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MSCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $590.00 to $618.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. UBS Group set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Evercore raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Bank of America began coverage on MSCI in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $700.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $671.78.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $547.34 on Friday. The business's 50 day moving average price is $568.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $564.80. The company has a market cap of $40.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.88, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.29. MSCI Inc has a one year low of $486.73 and a one year high of $626.28.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $4.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.62 by $0.04. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 82.59% and a net margin of 38.36%.The company had revenue of $822.53 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $819.51 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.18 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 13th were issued a $2.05 dividend. This is an increase from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.80. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 13th. MSCI's payout ratio is currently 52.26%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 800 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $518.95 per share, for a total transaction of $415,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,493,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $775,231,900.65. This trade represents a 0.05% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

MSCI Profile

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.

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