Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Sells 666 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 40.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 975 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 666 shares during the quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC's holdings in MSCI were worth $585,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 1,968 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $251,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 492 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $295,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,044 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,227,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 35.1% during the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays cut their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock traded up $4.36 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $578.71. The company's stock had a trading volume of 565,157 shares, compared to its average volume of 554,625. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $597.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $587.09. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a PE ratio of 41.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 last year, the firm posted $3.68 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.21%.

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.