MSCI Inc $MSCI Shares Sold by Korea Investment CORP

Key Points

• Korea Investment CORP reduced its stake in MSCI Inc by 7.5% during the first quarter, owning approximately 0.05% of the company, valued at $23.06 million.
• Insider activity included CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchasing nearly 10,000 shares of MSCI for over $5.4 million, increasing his ownership stake by 0.78%.
• MSCI recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.80 per share, which results in an annualized yield of 1.3%.

Korea Investment CORP lowered its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 7.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 40,770 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 3,300 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP owned approximately 0.05% of MSCI worth $23,055,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in MSCI by 2.6% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 804,640 shares of the technology company's stock worth $455,024,000 after purchasing an additional 20,150 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group grew its position in shares of MSCI by 39.2% during the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 703 shares of the technology company's stock worth $398,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares during the last quarter. George Kaiser Family Foundation purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the first quarter worth approximately $275,000. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. grew its position in shares of MSCI by 3.1% during the first quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. now owns 15,874 shares of the technology company's stock worth $8,977,000 after acquiring an additional 474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bowie Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of MSCI by 14.4% during the first quarter. Bowie Capital Management LLC now owns 186,470 shares of the technology company's stock worth $105,449,000 after acquiring an additional 23,504 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on MSCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price 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. 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 research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $654.73.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MSCI traded up $6.3540 during trading on Friday, hitting $573.6240. 380,090 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 803,549. The company has a market cap of $44.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.99, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.29. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $563.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $560.30.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. MSCI's payout ratio is presently 47.68%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 84 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $548.69 per share, with a total value of $46,089.96. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at $702,296,314.19. This represents a 0.01% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by 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.