JPMorgan Chase & Co. Buys 31,623 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 5.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 567,834 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 31,623 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned 0.72% of MSCI worth $340,707,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,192,364 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,860,925,000 after buying an additional 11,351 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,862,362 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,082,594,000 after acquiring an additional 13,691 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $967,820,000 after purchasing an additional 119,471 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp grew its stake in MSCI by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,148,615 shares of the technology company's stock worth $689,180,000 after buying an additional 49,679 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 569,374 shares of the technology company's stock worth $341,630,000 after buying an additional 84,354 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company's stock.

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MSCI Trading Down 4.8 %

Shares of MSCI stock traded down $27.91 on Thursday, hitting $548.05. The stock had a trading volume of 306,408 shares, compared to its average volume of 555,514. The firm has a market cap of $42.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.98, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $576.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $588.91.

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, topping 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 quarter last year, the company earned $3.68 EPS. On average, analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This is an increase from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.31%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is currently 51.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 shares were acquired at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays decreased their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $649.23.

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.