Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Has $108.10 Million Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 180,156 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 4,381 shares during the quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.23% of MSCI worth $108,096,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in MSCI by 4.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $312,574,000 after purchasing an additional 23,050 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 57.7% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,484 shares of the technology company's stock worth $890,000 after purchasing an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 2,064 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,238,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. Benin Management CORP raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 31.6% during the 4th quarter. Benin Management CORP now owns 1,598 shares of the technology company's stock worth $959,000 after purchasing an additional 384 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toth Financial Advisory Corp raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 884 shares of the technology company's stock worth $530,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 289,787 shares in the company, valued at $160,133,398.33. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 3.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MSCI traded down $3.58 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $563.01. 359,108 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 513,974. The stock has a market cap of $43.56 billion, a PE ratio of 40.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33. The company's fifty day moving average is $550.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $578.37. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $475.32 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.88 by $0.12. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. The firm had revenue of $745.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $746.45 million. Research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI cut their price target on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays cut their price target on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $645.36.

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.