Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Sells 6,379 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Key Points

• Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec reduced its stake in MSCI Inc. by 26.7%, now holding 17,547 shares valued at approximately $9.92 million.
• CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 84 shares at $548.69 each, increasing his total holding to over 1.27 million shares, valued at around $702 million.
• Analysts have set a new consensus price target for MSCI stock at approximately $654.73, with multiple firms giving it a "buy" rating.

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lowered its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 26.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 17,547 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 6,379 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec's holdings in MSCI were worth $9,923,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company's stock worth $5,302,610,000 after buying an additional 518,833 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 61,179.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 505,557 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $285,892,000 after acquiring an additional 504,732 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in MSCI by 3,881.3% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 419,429 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $251,662,000 after acquiring an additional 408,894 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its stake in MSCI by 605,802.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 212,066 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $129,903,000 after acquiring an additional 212,031 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at $117,879,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James Financial upgraded MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $654.73.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 84 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $548.69 per share, with a total value of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $702,296,314.19. This trade represents a 0.01% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders acquired a total of 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599 over the last ninety days. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MSCI Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of MSCI stock traded down $0.98 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $567.57. The company's stock had a trading volume of 498,985 shares, compared to its average volume of 589,100. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.59, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $565.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $559.90. 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 issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $772.68 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $763.06 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.13% and a net margin of 39.46%.MSCI's revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.64 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

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

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.