MSCI Inc $MSCI Stake Lessened by Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC trimmed its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 15.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,190 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 569 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,840,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in MSCI in the first quarter worth about $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of MSCI by 136.4% in the 1st quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 52 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Steph & Co. bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 50.0% in the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 66 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HWG Holdings LP acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 84 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $548.69 per share, with a total value of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $702,296,314.19. This trade represents a 0.01% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have bought a total of 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on MSCI shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.70.

MSCI Trading Down 2.1%

MSCI opened at $546.69 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $564.01 and its 200-day moving average is $559.29. The stock has a market cap of $42.29 billion, a PE ratio of 36.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.33. MSCI Inc has a twelve month low of $486.73 and a twelve month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $763.06 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.13% and a net margin of 39.46%.The firm’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.64 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 47.68%.

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.