Ossiam Grows Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Ossiam grew its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 94.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 69,493 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 33,818 shares during the quarter. Ossiam owned about 0.09% of MSCI worth $41,696,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,897,456 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,136,563,000 after purchasing an additional 35,094 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $967,820,000 after acquiring an additional 119,471 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,148,615 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $689,180,000 after acquiring an additional 49,679 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 4th quarter worth about $609,937,000. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 853,452 shares of the technology company's stock worth $512,079,000 after purchasing an additional 25,325 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $639.00.

MSCI Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of MSCI stock traded down $0.55 on Thursday, reaching $532.86. The stock had a trading volume of 323,528 shares, compared to its average volume of 555,096. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $449.00 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $556.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $584.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.35%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is currently 51.21%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the company's 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 294,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at $154,542,084.75. This represents a 1.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was acquired 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 directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

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.