Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Cuts Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. trimmed its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 9.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 608 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 65 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $344,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. RB Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 buying an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Markel Corp grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Markel Corp now owns 141,700 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $71,258,000 after acquiring an additional 4,700 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its stake 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 worth $622,000 after acquiring an additional 367 shares during the period. Cibc World Market Inc. raised its stake in MSCI by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 1,831 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $921,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential PLC purchased a new stake in MSCI during the first quarter valued at about $701,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of MSCI from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $526.00 to $600.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on MSCI from $544.00 to $617.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on MSCI in a research report on Tuesday. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on MSCI from $588.00 to $638.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on MSCI from $572.00 to $601.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $578.21.

MSCI Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of MSCI stock traded up $3.64 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $560.64. 224,083 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 458,131. The company has a market capitalization of $44.41 billion, a PE ratio of 38.68, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.07. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $451.55 and a 12-month high of $617.39. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $565.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $537.61.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.29 by $0.39. MSCI had a net margin of 45.42% and a negative return on equity of 111.17%. The business had revenue of $690.11 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $662.64 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.84 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.8 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.44%.

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.