MSCI Inc $MSCI Shares Sold by Canoe Financial LP

Key Points

• Canoe Financial LP reduced its stake in MSCI Inc by 3.3% during Q2, now holding 186,331 shares valued at approximately $107.47 million.
• Recent analyst ratings for MSCI have varied, with JPMorgan raising the target price to $655 and Wells Fargo lowering it to $533, highlighting mixed investor sentiment.
• CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 9,916 shares of MSCI for over $5.4 million, increasing his total shares to approximately 1.28 million.

Canoe Financial LP cut its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 3.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 186,331 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 6,400 shares during the quarter. MSCI accounts for approximately 1.5% of Canoe Financial LP's investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position. Canoe Financial LP owned 0.24% of MSCI worth $107,465,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Menard Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Olde Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in MSCI during the first quarter worth $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 136.4% during the first quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 52 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 50.0% during the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 66 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Transatlantique SA boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 355.6% during the first quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA now owns 82 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 9,916 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $544.70 per share, for a total transaction of $5,401,245.20. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,867 shares of the company's stock, valued at $697,143,554.90. The trade was a 0.78% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders bought 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MSCI shares. UBS Group boosted 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. Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $652.45.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE MSCI traded up $9.47 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $569.22. The stock had a trading volume of 838,261 shares, compared to its average volume of 618,970. The firm's 50 day moving average is $562.65 and its 200 day moving average is $558.83. MSCI Inc has a twelve month low of $486.73 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.70, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.34.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date 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.