MSCI Inc $MSCI Shares Sold by Assetmark Inc.

Assetmark Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 53.2% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,006 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 2,282 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,157,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its position in MSCI by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 933 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $528,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 620 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $351,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in MSCI by 16.6% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 64,627 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,591,000 after acquiring an additional 9,204 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 0.6% during the first quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 3,468 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,961,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quotient Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 5.9% during the first quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 361 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $204,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings cut MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $655.90.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $571.85 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $42.97 billion, a PE ratio of 36.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $562.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $561.06. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.37 by $0.10. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 110.94% and a net margin of 40.03%.The firm had revenue of $793.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $794.87 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.86 earnings per share. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.63%.

MSCI announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to purchase up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.