Cerity Partners LLC Buys 761 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 11.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 7,679 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 761 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $4,344,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in MSCI by 803.9% during the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 587,978 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $331,906,000 after acquiring an additional 522,926 shares during the period. Segment Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 24.4% in the 4th quarter. Segment Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,752 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,557,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 237.6% in the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,332 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,450,000 after purchasing an additional 3,049 shares during the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the 4th quarter valued at $57,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 45,136 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $25,531,000 after purchasing an additional 3,531 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on MSCI shares. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on MSCI from $659.00 to $648.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Redburn Atlantic lowered MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $620.00 to $470.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $581.57.

MSCI Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of MSCI opened at $513.28 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.66 billion, a PE ratio of 35.64, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.06. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $451.55 and a 12 month high of $617.39. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $556.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $539.26.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.29 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $690.11 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $662.64 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 111.17% and a net margin of 45.42%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.84 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 44.44%.

About MSCI

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.