Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec Purchases 482 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Key Points

• The Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec increased its stake in MSCI Inc by 7.0%, now owning 7,343 shares valued at approximately $4.15 million.
• MSCI reported $4.17 earnings per share for its latest quarter, exceeding estimates, and had a revenue increase of 9.1% year-over-year.
• The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.80, translating to an annualized yield of 1.3% with a payout ratio of 47.68%.

Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec boosted its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 7.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,343 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 482 shares during the quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec's holdings in MSCI were worth $4,152,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of MSCI. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 acquiring an additional 518,833 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in shares of MSCI by 3,881.3% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 419,429 shares of the technology company's stock worth $251,662,000 after buying an additional 408,894 shares during the period. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 605,802.9% during the first quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 212,066 shares of the technology company's stock worth $129,903,000 after purchasing an additional 212,031 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the first quarter worth about $117,879,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MSCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target 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. Ten investment 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, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $654.73.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 9,916 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $544.70 per share, with a total value of $5,401,245.20. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,867 shares of the company's stock, valued at $697,143,554.90. This represents a 0.78% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders bought 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599 in the last ninety days. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MSCI Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE:MSCI traded down $5.45 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $569.13. The stock had a trading volume of 668,511 shares, compared to its average volume of 605,981. The company's 50-day moving average price is $564.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $559.28. The company has a market capitalization of $44.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.34. MSCI Inc has a fifty-two week low of $486.73 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.12 by $0.05. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.13% and a net margin of 39.46%.The company had revenue of $772.68 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $763.06 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.64 EPS. MSCI's revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.68%.

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.