Montag A & Associates Inc. Purchases 1,310 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Montag A & Associates Inc. lifted its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 344.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,690 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 1,310 shares during the period. Montag A & Associates Inc.'s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,014,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Creative Planning lifted its stake in MSCI by 15.6% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,090 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,465,000 after purchasing an additional 1,499 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 16.7% during the 3rd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 510 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at $223,000. Net Worth Advisory Group purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the third quarter worth about $366,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of MSCI by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 127,021 shares of the technology company's stock worth $74,044,000 after buying an additional 6,564 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on MSCI shares. Barclays dropped their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of 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 shares of MSCI from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $649.23.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $574.51. The stock had a trading volume of 736,989 shares, compared to its average volume of 554,309. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $598.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $587.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.61 billion, a PE ratio of 40.86, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last issued 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 net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.68 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal 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 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 is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. MSCI's payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.