Rhumbline Advisers Sells 3,916 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Rhumbline Advisers reduced its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 148,323 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 3,916 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers’ holdings in MSCI were worth $88,995,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of MSCI. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 1,968 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $251,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. Angeles Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 492 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $295,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,044 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,227,000 after buying an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 35.1% in the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSCI. UBS Group dropped their price objective 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. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective 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. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.23.

MSCI Trading Up 0.1 %

MSCI opened at $572.78 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.89 billion, a PE ratio of 40.74, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $601.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $586.26.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.68 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.