Cerity Partners LLC Acquires 8,412 Shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI)

Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 43.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,857 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 8,412 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC's holdings in MSCI were worth $15,753,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $210,000. Independent Advisor Alliance lifted its stake in MSCI by 27.4% in the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 623 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $374,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of MSCI by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,730 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,638,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 406 shares of the technology company's stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 2,123 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,274,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on MSCI from $530.00 to $578.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 target price for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $651.55.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock traded up $5.09 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $570.65. The company's stock had a trading volume of 519,960 shares, compared to its average volume of 542,897. The company has a market cap of $44.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.22, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.32. MSCI Inc has a 1-year low of $486.73 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $564.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $568.73.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.88 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $745.83 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $746.45 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 145.52% and a net margin of 39.08%. Sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.48%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In related news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total transaction of $2,762,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 289,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at $160,133,398.33. This represents a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

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.