Capital Advisors Inc. OK Takes $269,000 Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Capital Advisors Inc. OK bought a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 449 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $269,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Focus Financial Network Inc. bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the fourth quarter worth about $254,000. Summit Trail Advisors LLC boosted its position in MSCI by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $640,000 after buying an additional 257 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 56.7% in the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 550 shares of the technology company's stock worth $330,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 492 shares of the technology company's stock worth $295,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 64,475 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $38,685,000 after acquiring an additional 3,220 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

MSCI Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of MSCI traded up $0.48 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $572.78. 453,866 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 532,231. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm's fifty day moving average is $601.53 and its 200-day moving average is $586.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.68 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.26%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.21%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $649.23.

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.