Dark Forest Capital Management LP Trims Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP cut its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 37.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,096 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 666 shares during the period. Dark Forest Capital Management LP's holdings in MSCI were worth $658,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,897,456 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,136,563,000 after purchasing an additional 35,094 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 8.0% during 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 period. Fiera Capital Corp increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 49,679 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth about $609,937,000. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 853,452 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $512,079,000 after purchasing an additional 25,325 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company's stock.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock traded up $5.06 during trading on Friday, hitting $535.66. 504,498 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 543,947. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $458.69 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The stock has a market cap of $41.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $555.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $583.65.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. The firm had revenue of $745.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $746.45 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.48%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were acquired 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 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 ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total transaction of $2,621,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 294,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at $154,542,084.75. This represents a 1.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on MSCI shares. Bank of America began coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $585.00 target price on the stock. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $645.36.

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.