MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Stake Raised by Northern Trust Corp

Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 784,490 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 48,524 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned 1.00% of MSCI worth $470,702,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in MSCI by 1.9% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 8.0% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp increased 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 worth $689,180,000 after acquiring an additional 49,679 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter worth $609,937,000. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its position in MSCI by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 853,452 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $512,079,000 after purchasing an additional 25,325 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI cut their price target on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $645.36.

MSCI Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $541.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $458.69 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $553.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $582.76.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.88 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $745.83 million for 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.48%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total transaction of $2,621,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 294,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at $154,542,084.75. The trade was a 1.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

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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