Advisors Capital Management LLC Boosts Stake in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Advisors Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,581 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $6,103,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in MSCI by 5.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,302,610,000 after purchasing an additional 518,833 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 355.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 660,690 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $365,976,000 after buying an additional 515,713 shares during the period. Magellan Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $175,912,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich grew its stake in MSCI by 605,802.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 212,066 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $129,903,000 after acquiring an additional 212,031 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 1st quarter valued at $119,408,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $564.71 on Friday. MSCI Inc has a 12-month low of $486.73 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The stock has a market cap of $42.43 billion, a PE ratio of 35.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a 50-day moving average of $564.47 and a 200 day moving average of $562.96.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

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

MSCI announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to repurchase up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $655.90.

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.