Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super Purchases Shares of 52,609 MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super acquired a new stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 52,609 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,566,000. Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super owned 0.07% of MSCI at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,897,456 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,136,563,000 after purchasing an additional 35,094 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in MSCI by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $967,820,000 after acquiring an additional 119,471 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its holdings in MSCI by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,148,615 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $689,180,000 after acquiring an additional 49,679 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in MSCI during the 4th quarter valued at $609,937,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in MSCI by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 853,452 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $512,079,000 after purchasing an additional 25,325 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total value of $2,621,250.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 294,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $154,542,084.75. This trade represents a 1.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MSCI. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on MSCI from $623.00 to $532.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Barclays dropped their price target on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 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 issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $646.58.

MSCI Stock Up 2.7 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $542.26 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $562.15 and a 200 day moving average of $586.85. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The firm has a market cap of $42.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.57, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.68 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.21%.

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.