Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Sells 778 Shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI)

Key Points

• Jefferies Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in MSCI Inc. by 7.0%, holding $5.82 million worth of shares after selling 778 shares during the first quarter.
• CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 84 shares of MSCI stock for approximately $46,089.96, while COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares for about $2.76 million.
• MSCI recently reported quarterly earnings of $4.17 per share, exceeding analysts' expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $1.80 per share to be paid in August.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 7.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,284 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 778 shares during the quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in MSCI were worth $5,816,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 0.9% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,626,923 shares of the technology company's stock worth $920,026,000 after purchasing an additional 13,918 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 853,452 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $512,079,000 after purchasing an additional 25,325 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in MSCI by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 784,490 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $470,702,000 after purchasing an additional 48,524 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in shares of MSCI by 0.6% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 590,892 shares of the technology company's stock worth $334,149,000 after acquiring an additional 3,335 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of MSCI by 61,179.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 505,557 shares of the technology company's stock worth $285,892,000 after acquiring an additional 504,732 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 target price for the company. UBS Group upped their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Oppenheimer restated a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, July 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $654.73.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 84 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $548.69 per share, for a total transaction of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at $702,296,314.19. This trade represents a 0.01% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders bought 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599 in the last three months. 3.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

MSCI Trading Down 2.4%

MSCI stock traded down $13.83 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $558.21. The stock had a trading volume of 1,089,749 shares, compared to its average volume of 607,088. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.29. MSCI Inc has a 52 week low of $486.73 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $563.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $564.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 period last year, the business earned $3.64 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

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

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.