Ascent Group LLC Raises Stake in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Ascent Group LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 17.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 598 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $345,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Olde Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in MSCI by 136.4% in the 1st quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 52 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Steph & Co. acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 50.0% in the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 66 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Transatlantique SA boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 355.6% in the first quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA now owns 82 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on MSCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $652.45.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 9,916 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $544.70 per share, for a total transaction of $5,401,245.20. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,867 shares in the company, valued at approximately $697,143,554.90. The trade was a 0.78% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders purchased 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $568.74 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $564.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $559.50. MSCI Inc has a 12-month low of $486.73 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.00 billion, a PE ratio of 37.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.33.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $763.06 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.13% and a net margin of 39.46%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.64 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.68%.

MSCI 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.