Northern Trust Corp Grows Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Key Points

• Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in MSCI Inc by 2.6% in Q1, bringing its total shares to 804,640, valued at approximately $455 million.
• Analysts have mixed ratings for MSCI, with ten analysts issuing a Buy rating and a consensus price target of $654.73, while some have set lower targets.
• MSCI reported $4.17 EPS in its recent earnings, exceeding expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $1.80 per share, contributing to a yield of 1.3%.

Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 2.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 804,640 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 20,150 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned about 1.04% of MSCI worth $455,024,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 39.2% in the 1st quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 703 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $398,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. George Kaiser Family Foundation purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the 1st quarter valued at about $275,000. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. now owns 15,874 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $8,977,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. Bowie Capital Management LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Bowie Capital Management LLC now owns 186,470 shares of the technology company's stock worth $105,449,000 after buying an additional 23,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 2,075 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,173,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial upgraded MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $654.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 84 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $548.69 per share, with a total value of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at $702,296,314.19. This trade represents a 0.01% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders acquired 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599 in the last 90 days. 3.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

MSCI Trading Up 1.1%

MSCI stock traded up $6.3540 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $573.6240. The company's stock had a trading volume of 380,090 shares, compared to its average volume of 803,549. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.38 billion, a PE ratio of 37.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 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 stock's fifty day moving average is $563.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $560.45.

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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $772.68 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $763.06 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.13% and a net margin of 39.46%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.64 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

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

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.