Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Acquires 3,111 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 23.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,241 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 3,111 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.'s holdings in MSCI were worth $9,745,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. LRI Investments LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 120.0% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company's stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 35.1% in the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company's stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of several research reports. 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. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $649.23.

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MSCI Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $542.79 on Wednesday. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $587.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $589.86. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 quarter last year, the firm earned $3.68 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 yield of 1.33%. MSCI's payout ratio is 51.21%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.

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