T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Key Points

• T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. significantly increased its stake in MSCI Inc by 1,275.4% in the first quarter, owning approximately 0.15% of the company valued at about $65.5 million.
• MSCI recently reported earnings of $4.17 per share, exceeding estimates, along with a 9.1% year-over-year revenue growth, totaling $772.68 million for the quarter.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.80 per share, yielding 1.3%, with a payout ratio of 47.68%.

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 1,275.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 115,874 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 107,449 shares during the quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.15% of MSCI worth $65,527,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 15.4% during the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 142 shares of the technology company's stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 540 shares of the technology company's stock worth $306,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 361 shares of the technology company's stock worth $204,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 16.8% during the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 146 shares of the technology company's stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Salvus Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Salvus Wealth Management LLC now owns 824 shares of the technology company's stock worth $466,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MSCI Stock Down 0.1%

MSCI stock traded down $0.46 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $570.97. The company's stock had a trading volume of 154,079 shares, compared to its average volume of 600,348. MSCI Inc has a 52-week low of $486.73 and a 52-week high of $642.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.83, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $564.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $560.16.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

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 given a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 9,916 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $544.70 per share, with a total value of $5,401,245.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,867 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $697,143,554.90. This represents a 0.78% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders have purchased 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSCI. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a 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 target price for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price 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. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $654.73.

MSCI 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.