National Pension Service Boosts Holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI)

Key Points

• The National Pension Service increased its holdings in MSCI Inc by 7.6%, acquiring an additional 12,371 shares, bringing its total ownership to 175,626 shares valued at approximately $99.3 million.
• MSCI reported earnings of $4.17 per share for the last quarter, exceeding the consensus estimate of $4.12 and achieving a revenue of $772.68 million.
• The company also announced a quarterly dividend of $1.80 per share, with a 1.3% dividend yield, set to be paid to shareholders on August 29th.

National Pension Service grew its position in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 7.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 175,626 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 12,371 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.23% of MSCI worth $99,317,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in MSCI by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company's stock worth $5,302,610,000 after buying an additional 518,833 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 61,179.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 505,557 shares of the technology company's stock worth $285,892,000 after buying an additional 504,732 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in MSCI by 3,881.3% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 419,429 shares of the technology company's stock worth $251,662,000 after buying an additional 408,894 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich lifted its position in MSCI by 605,802.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 212,066 shares of the technology company's stock worth $129,903,000 after buying an additional 212,031 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in MSCI during the 1st quarter worth about $117,879,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on MSCI. Oppenheimer reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. 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. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $654.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 84 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $548.69 per share, for a total transaction of $46,089.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at $702,296,314.19. This trade represents a 0.01% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

MSCI Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of MSCI stock traded down $8.80 during trading on Friday, reaching $556.92. 372,332 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,024,423. The firm's 50-day moving average is $561.90 and its 200 day moving average is $561.20. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $43.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.88, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.29.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $772.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $763.06 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.64 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.68%.

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.