Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. Sells 24,053 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. reduced its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 86.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,907 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 24,053 shares during the quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC.'s holdings in MSCI were worth $2,344,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $312,574,000 after buying an additional 23,050 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its stake in MSCI by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 659 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $395,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC grew its position in MSCI by 76.3% in the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,992 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,795,000 after acquiring an additional 1,295 shares in the last quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth $230,000. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,377 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $826,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total value of $2,621,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 294,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $154,542,084.75. The trade was a 1.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $645.36.

MSCI Stock Down 0.8%

MSCI traded down $4.77 during trading on Friday, reaching $559.11. 226,488 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 515,594. The company has a market capitalization of $43.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.77, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $551.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $578.85. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $475.32 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $745.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $746.45 million. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. As a group, 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, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.29%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.48%.

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.