DSG Capital Advisors LLC Takes $346,000 Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

DSG Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 576 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $346,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 1.9% during the 4th 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. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of MSCI by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company's stock worth $967,820,000 after buying an additional 119,471 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp grew its position in shares of MSCI by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,148,615 shares of the technology company's stock worth $689,180,000 after buying an additional 49,679 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at $609,937,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 853,452 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $512,079,000 after acquiring an additional 25,325 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer restated a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Evercore ISI cut their price target on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $645.36.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 now directly owns 289,787 shares in the company, valued at approximately $160,133,398.33. This trade represents a 1.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Trading Down 0.4%

MSCI opened at $563.57 on Monday. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $550.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $577.35. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $475.32 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.60 billion, a PE ratio of 40.08, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $746.45 million. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. As a group, analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th were paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.48%.

MSCI 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.