California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 6,625 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

California Public Employees Retirement System cut its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 141,429 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 6,625 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in MSCI were worth $79,999,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in MSCI during the 3rd quarter worth about $434,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,340 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,324,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in MSCI by 19.2% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 218,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $124,786,000 after acquiring an additional 35,277 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 13,659.5% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 10,182 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,759,000 after acquiring an additional 10,108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd grew its holdings in MSCI by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 430,676 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $220,971,000 after acquiring an additional 12,495 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MSCI Trading Up 4.2 %

MSCI opened at $464.81 on Thursday. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $617.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.82 billion, a PE ratio of 31.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $545.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $538.56.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. MSCI had a net margin of 44.55% and a negative return on equity of 111.33%. The company had revenue of $680.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.14 EPS. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.69%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $620.00 to $470.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of MSCI from $530.00 to $425.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $562.87.

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.