Legal & General Group Plc Has $307.06 Million Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 637,381 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,497 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.80% of MSCI worth $307,058,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 37.7% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 11,295 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,441,000 after acquiring an additional 3,092 shares during the period. MBB Public Markets I LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 1,435.7% during the 2nd quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC now owns 5,974 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,878,000 after purchasing an additional 5,585 shares during the last quarter. Delta Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,213,000. APG Asset Management N.V. grew its position in MSCI by 38.8% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 315,887 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $141,991,000 after purchasing an additional 88,239 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 221.2% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 61,347 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,554,000 after purchasing an additional 42,247 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $576.15 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $45.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $617.39. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $555.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $522.00.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $696.41 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. MSCI’s revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.26 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 43.69%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays lifted their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Argus upped their target price on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $591.00.

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.