Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Increases Stake in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 102.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,700 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 859 shares during the quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $980,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Threadgill Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 98.7% in the 2nd quarter. Threadgill Financial LLC now owns 14,806 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $8,539,000 after purchasing an additional 7,355 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 20.9% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $607,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 51,637 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,781,000 after purchasing an additional 314 shares during the last quarter. Baron Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth about $208,000. Finally, Czech National Bank boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 18,912 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,907,000 after purchasing an additional 1,077 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $569.33 on Wednesday. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $562.74 and a 200-day moving average of $558.96. The company has a market cap of $44.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.34.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.12 by $0.05. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The business had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $763.06 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.64 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 47.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 84 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $548.69 per share, for a total transaction of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at $702,296,314.19. The trade was a 0.01% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have bought 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599 in the last quarter. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MSCI. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $652.45.

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.