Picton Mahoney Asset Management Purchases New Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Picton Mahoney Asset Management acquired a new position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 100 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 30.0% in the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $329,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $104,991,000 after purchasing an additional 41,346 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of MSCI by 4.5% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $312,574,000 after buying an additional 23,050 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 339.6% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,642,000 after buying an additional 20,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 176.2% in the third quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $921,000 after buying an additional 1,008 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSCI. Barclays reduced their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.23.

MSCI Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of MSCI opened at $554.92 on Monday. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $584.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $589.15. The company has a market cap of $43.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.68 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.30%. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

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.