YANKCOM Partnership Takes $97,000 Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 162 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MSCI. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in MSCI by 30.0% in the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $329,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust grew its position in MSCI by 52.4% during the 3rd quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,779 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,203,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in MSCI by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,991,000 after purchasing an additional 41,346 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in MSCI by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $312,574,000 after purchasing an additional 23,050 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its position in MSCI by 339.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,642,000 after purchasing an additional 20,730 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on MSCI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.23.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

MSCI Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $586.75 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $606.13 and a 200-day moving average of $584.51. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $45.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.68 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.85 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.52%.

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.