Kera Capital Partners Inc. Makes New $280,000 Investment in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Key Points

• Kera Capital Partners Inc. made a new investment of $280,000 in MSCI Inc, acquiring 485 shares in the second quarter.
• Analyst ratings for MSCI include a buy rating from UBS Group with a target price increase to $700.00, while Wells Fargo lowered their target price to $533.00.
• MSCI recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.80 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 1.2%.

Kera Capital Partners Inc. bought a new position in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 485 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $280,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its stake in MSCI by 15.4% in the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 142 shares of the technology company's stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 540 shares of the technology company's stock worth $306,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 361 shares of the technology company's stock worth $204,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 16.8% in the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 146 shares of the technology company's stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Salvus Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Salvus Wealth Management LLC now owns 824 shares of the technology company's stock worth $466,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on MSCI shares. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $652.45.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $582.77 on Friday. MSCI Inc has a fifty-two week low of $486.73 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.34. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $563.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $559.30.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.12 by $0.05. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The business had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $763.06 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.64 EPS. The company's revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 84 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $548.69 per share, for a total transaction of $46,089.96. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $702,296,314.19. This represents a 0.01% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders have bought 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.

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