Advisors Asset Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 49.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,087 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 1,686 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in MSCI were worth $3,052,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $251,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 492 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $295,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,044 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,227,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA boosted its stake in MSCI by 35.1% in the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 77 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perigon Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 575 shares of the technology company's stock worth $351,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

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MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock traded down $5.27 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $569.35. 455,125 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 529,170. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.49, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $581.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $588.84. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.68 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This is a boost from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on MSCI. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $649.23.

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.