MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Sold by Sage Mountain Advisors LLC

Sage Mountain Advisors LLC cut its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 16.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 617 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 120 shares during the period. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $370,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.9% during the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 452 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $264,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in MSCI by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $870,627,000 after purchasing an additional 37,340 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the third quarter valued at about $234,000. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 13.5% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 244 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $143,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 5.0% in the third quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 669 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $390,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.23.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $542.79 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $587.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $589.86. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) 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 last year, the business earned $3.68 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 51.21%.

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.