Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Has $304.45 Million Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 169.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 507,413 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 319,083 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned 0.65% of MSCI worth $304,453,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,192,364 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,860,925,000 after acquiring an additional 11,351 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,862,362 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,082,594,000 after purchasing an additional 13,691 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in 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 last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp increased its stake in shares of 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 period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $609,937,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays decreased their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI traded up $1.48 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $566.98. 550,131 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 554,854. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.33, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50 day moving average of $577.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $588.96.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.68 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

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.