George Kaiser Family Foundation Acquires New Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Key Points

• The George Kaiser Family Foundation acquired a new stake of 487 shares in MSCI Inc, valued at approximately $275,000, during the first quarter of the year.
• MSCI's stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from analysts, with a target price of $654.73, while recent earnings exceeded estimates at $4.17 EPS against a consensus of $4.12.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.80 per share, with an annualized yield of 1.3%, set to be paid on August 29th, indicating a robust commitment to returning capital to shareholders.

George Kaiser Family Foundation bought a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 487 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $275,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in MSCI by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $5,302,610,000 after purchasing an additional 518,833 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in MSCI by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,626,923 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $920,026,000 after purchasing an additional 13,918 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in MSCI by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,008,778 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $570,464,000 after purchasing an additional 19,846 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in MSCI by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 784,490 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $470,702,000 after buying an additional 48,524 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in MSCI by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 615,770 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $348,218,000 after buying an additional 47,936 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock traded up $5.9490 on Wednesday, reaching $574.1090. The company had a trading volume of 577,290 shares, compared to its average volume of 606,558. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm has a market cap of $44.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.29. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $562.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $560.54.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $772.68 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $763.06 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.64 EPS. MSCI's quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Oppenheimer restated a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial upgraded MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. UBS Group raised their price target on MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price target on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $654.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 84 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $548.69 per share, with a total value of $46,089.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $702,296,314.19. This trade represents a 0.01% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders acquired 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599. Insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

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.