Allianz SE Has $2.64 Million Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Allianz SE boosted its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 12.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,575 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Allianz SE’s holdings in MSCI were worth $2,639,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in MSCI by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,302,610,000 after acquiring an additional 518,833 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,993,524 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,146,298,000 after purchasing an additional 34,335 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.0% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,008,778 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $570,464,000 after purchasing an additional 19,846 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 11.9% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 890,123 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $513,370,000 after purchasing an additional 94,466 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in MSCI by 2.6% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 804,640 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $455,024,000 after purchasing an additional 20,150 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSCI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Seaport Res Ptn raised MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded MSCI from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $655.90.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $573.33 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $564.29 and its 200-day moving average is $562.76. The stock has a market cap of $43.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.33, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34. MSCI Inc has a 52-week low of $486.73 and a 52-week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.37 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $793.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $794.87 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 110.94% and a net margin of 40.03%.MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.86 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 45.63%.

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.