Wellington Management Group LLP Sells 29,502 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Key Points

• Wellington Management Group LLP decreased its stake in MSCI Inc by 11.8%, now holding 220,557 shares after selling 29,502 shares in the first quarter.
• CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 9,916 shares at an average price of $544.70, increasing his total ownership to approximately $697.14 million.
• MSCI has received a series of price target adjustments from analysts, with UBS Group raising their target to $700 and Wells Fargo decreasing it to $533, reflecting varied market expectations.

Wellington Management Group LLP cut its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 11.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 220,557 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 29,502 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP owned 0.29% of MSCI worth $124,725,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in MSCI by 5,053.6% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 30,406 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $18,244,000 after buying an additional 29,816 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 267,049 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $160,234,000 after acquiring an additional 5,602 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 6,215 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,729,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 49.4% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,425 shares of the technology company's stock worth $5,056,000 after acquiring an additional 2,787 shares during the period. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in MSCI by 79.3% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,245 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,347,000 after purchasing an additional 993 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. Finally, 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 research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $654.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 9,916 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 24th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $544.70 per share, for a total transaction of $5,401,245.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,867 shares in the company, valued at approximately $697,143,554.90. This represents a 0.78% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders bought 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599. 3.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

MSCI Trading Down 1.2%

MSCI stock opened at $567.4980 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $562.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $560.52. MSCI Inc has a 1-year low of $486.73 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.29.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.12 by $0.05. The firm 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.64 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 annualized dividend 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.

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