Vontobel Holding Ltd. Increases Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 127.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 107,564 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 60,360 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $62,036,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 16.8% in the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 257 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $145,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 39.2% in the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,762 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $996,000 after buying an additional 496 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 8.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 894 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $506,000 after buying an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 13.6% in the first quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 868 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $491,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 32.1% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 231,094 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $130,684,000 after buying an additional 56,112 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial upgraded MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 9,916 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The shares were bought at an average price of $544.70 per share, with a total value of $5,401,245.20. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,867 shares in the company, valued at approximately $697,143,554.90. This represents a 0.78% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders purchased 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $566.95 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.86 billion, a PE ratio of 37.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.33. The business has a 50-day moving average of $564.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $559.55. MSCI Inc has a 12 month low of $486.73 and a 12 month high of $642.45.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

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

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.