Optivise Advisory Services LLC Purchases Shares of 520 MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Optivise Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 520 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $312,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,897,456 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,136,563,000 after acquiring an additional 35,094 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company's stock worth $967,820,000 after purchasing an additional 119,471 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp lifted its stake in MSCI by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,148,615 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $689,180,000 after purchasing an additional 49,679 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at $609,937,000. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in MSCI by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 853,452 shares of the technology company's stock worth $512,079,000 after buying an additional 25,325 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSCI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $645.36.

MSCI Stock Up 1.0 %

NYSE:MSCI traded up $5.06 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $535.66. 504,498 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 549,615. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $458.69 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $555.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $584.22. The firm has a market cap of $41.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.88 by $0.12. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. The firm had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $746.45 million. On average, analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.34%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is presently 49.48%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In related news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total value of $2,621,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 294,787 shares in the company, valued at $154,542,084.75. The trade was a 1.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

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.