Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 18,286 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Russell Investments Group Ltd. decreased its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 4.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 389,856 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 18,286 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.50% of MSCI worth $224,838,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in MSCI by 136.4% in the first quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 52 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Steph & Co. bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Banque Transatlantique SA increased its position in shares of MSCI by 355.6% during the 1st quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA now owns 82 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2,666.7% during the 1st quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 83 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its position in MSCI by 47.0% in the 2nd quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 97 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on MSCI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. One equities research 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $655.90.

MSCI Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $562.67 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $562.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $563.58. MSCI Inc has a 12-month low of $486.73 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The firm has a market cap of $42.28 billion, a PE ratio of 35.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

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

MSCI announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.