Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC Has $27.97 Million Stake in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC lowered its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 32.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 48,502 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 23,029 shares during the quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC owned about 0.06% of MSCI worth $27,973,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at about $547,348,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 355.7% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 660,690 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $365,976,000 after purchasing an additional 515,713 shares in the last quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in MSCI in the second quarter valued at approximately $175,912,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in MSCI in the first quarter valued at approximately $119,408,000. Finally, Gobi Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter worth approximately $115,088,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on MSCI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Monday. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI increased their price objective 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. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $651.56.

MSCI Trading Up 2.0%

MSCI stock opened at $549.08 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.80 and a beta of 1.32. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $558.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $562.05. MSCI Inc has a 1-year low of $486.73 and a 1-year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted 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. MSCI had a net margin of 40.03% and a negative return on equity of 110.94%. The company had revenue of $793.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $794.87 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.86 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th were issued a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.63%.

MSCI announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to buy up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In related news, General Counsel Robert J. Gutowski sold 624 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $558.42, for a total transaction of $348,454.08. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 15,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,904,006.90. The trade was a 3.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 10,210 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $536.13 per share, with a total value of $5,473,887.30. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,487,047 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $797,250,508.11. This represents a 0.69% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

MSCI Company 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.