DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Buys 9,204 Shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 16.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 64,627 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 9,204 shares during the quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned 0.08% of MSCI worth $35,591,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 15.4% in the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 142 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $80,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. Salvus Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. Finally, M3 Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in MSCI by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. M3 Advisory Group LLC now owns 401 shares of the technology company's stock worth $227,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total value of $2,762,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 289,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at $160,133,398.33. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on MSCI shares. Barclays lowered their target price on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $651.55.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE:MSCI traded down $12.80 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $567.86. 244,139 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 539,972. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $564.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $569.59. 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 $43.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.32.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.88 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $746.45 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 145.52% and a net margin of 39.08%. On average, analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. MSCI's payout ratio is presently 49.48%.

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.