Montanaro Asset Management Ltd Trims Holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI)

Key Points

• Montanaro Asset Management Ltd reduced its stake in MSCI Inc by 29.4%, selling 5,000 shares and holding a total of 12,000 shares, which are now valued at approximately $6.8 million.
• MSCI reported Q2 earnings of $4.17 per share, exceeding analysts' expectations, with revenues of $772.68 million, up 9.1% year-over-year.
• CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased nearly 10,000 shares of MSCI stock, increasing his ownership and demonstrating insider confidence in the company's performance.

Montanaro Asset Management Ltd decreased its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 29.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,000 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 5,000 shares during the period. MSCI makes up about 2.0% of Montanaro Asset Management Ltd's holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Montanaro Asset Management Ltd's holdings in MSCI were worth $6,786,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its position in shares of MSCI by 23.2% in the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 812 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $459,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 336.4% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 96 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 6.5% during the first quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 524 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $296,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at about $556,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 8.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 894 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $506,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. 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. Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $654.73.

MSCI Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE MSCI traded down $0.95 during trading on Thursday, hitting $566.48. The company had a trading volume of 362,921 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,038,627. The company's fifty day moving average is $562.14 and its 200-day moving average is $561.70. The company has a market cap of $43.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.29. MSCI Inc has a one year low of $486.73 and a one year high of $642.45.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 84 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were purchased 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 of the company's stock, valued at $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 link. Over the last quarter, insiders have bought 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.