Federated Hermes Inc. Trims Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Federated Hermes Inc. cut its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 23.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 131,033 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 40,254 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned about 0.17% of MSCI worth $74,119,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. RB Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 16.5% in the first quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the technology company's stock worth $642,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. Markel Corp increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Markel Corp now owns 141,700 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $71,258,000 after acquiring an additional 4,700 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 42.2% during the 1st quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,237 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $622,000 after acquiring an additional 367 shares during the period. Cibc World Market Inc. boosted its stake in MSCI by 6.0% during the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 1,831 shares of the technology company's stock worth $921,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC acquired a new stake in MSCI in the first quarter worth $701,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $600.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. They issued a "peer perform" rating for the company. StockNews.com lowered MSCI from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James restated a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Friday, January 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $581.57.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE:MSCI traded up $4.31 on Friday, hitting $510.07. The stock had a trading volume of 509,477 shares, compared to its average volume of 460,694. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $451.55 and a 1 year high of $617.39. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $552.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $538.86. The stock has a market cap of $40.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.29 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $690.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $662.64 million. MSCI had a net margin of 45.42% and a negative return on equity of 111.17%. The company's revenue was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.84 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.84 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. This is a positive change from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. MSCI's payout ratio is presently 44.44%.

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.