Hhlr Advisors LTD. Invests $2.19 Million in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Hhlr Advisors LTD. acquired a new position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,650 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $2,190,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $251,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares during the period. Angeles Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 492 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $295,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,044 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,227,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the period. Perigon Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 575 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $351,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 3,325 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,995,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on MSCI. Evercore ISI reduced their target price 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. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 price target for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $645.36.

MSCI Trading Up 0.3 %

MSCI stock traded up $1.46 on Thursday, hitting $546.57. 430,385 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 537,475. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $458.69 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The stock has a market cap of $42.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $552.39 and a 200-day moving average of $582.08.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. The business had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $746.45 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.48%.

Insider Activity

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

About MSCI

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.