Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Has $144.15 Million Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. reduced its holdings in MSCI Inc by 10.9% in the first quarter, selling 31,283 shares and owning a total of 254,903 shares worth approximately $144.15 million.
• Several institutional investors, including Vanguard Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., also modified their positions in MSCI, with Vanguard increasing its stake by 5.9%.
• MSCI announced a quarterly dividend of $1.80 per share, with the ex-dividend date set for August 15th, and has a current dividend yield of 1.3%.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lessened its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 10.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 254,903 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 31,283 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 0.33% of MSCI worth $144,148,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Sunbelt Securities Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI by 15.4% in the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 142 shares of the technology company's stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares during the period. Optivise Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 540 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $306,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in MSCI by 5.9% in 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 period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 16.8% during the first 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 boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 2.6% in the first quarter. Salvus Wealth Management LLC now owns 824 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $466,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on MSCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price 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. Raymond James Financial upgraded MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock 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 given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $654.73.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 84 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $548.69 per share, for a total transaction of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $702,296,314.19. This trade represents a 0.01% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders have bought 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Stock Down 0.2%

NYSE:MSCI traded down $0.98 on Friday, reaching $567.57. The stock had a trading volume of 498,985 shares, compared to its average volume of 616,803. The company has a market capitalization of $43.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.59, 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 has a fifty day moving average price of $565.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $559.98.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio 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.