RFG Advisory LLC Reduces Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

RFG Advisory LLC reduced its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 15.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 776 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 143 shares during the quarter. RFG Advisory LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $439,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at $609,937,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 16,353.6% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 587,557 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $352,539,000 after purchasing an additional 583,986 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 61,179.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 505,557 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $285,892,000 after purchasing an additional 504,732 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 3,881.3% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 419,429 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $251,662,000 after purchasing an additional 408,894 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 169.4% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 507,413 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $304,453,000 after purchasing an additional 319,083 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total transaction of $2,762,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 289,787 shares in the company, valued at $160,133,398.33. This represents a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $568.66 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $44.00 billion, a PE ratio of 40.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $550.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $576.60. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $475.32 and a one year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $745.83 million during 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%. On average, equities analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.48%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $645.36.

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.