Select Equity Group L.P. Invests $34.17 Million in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Select Equity Group L.P. purchased a new stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 70,919 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $34,165,000. Select Equity Group L.P. owned about 0.09% of MSCI as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in MSCI in the first quarter valued at $26,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter worth approximately $34,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 36.1% during the fourth quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC now owns 98 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MSCI. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Argus lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised MSCI to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $591.00.

MSCI Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI traded up $8.23 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $575.50. 286,163 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 555,173. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $553.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $522.22. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $617.39. The stock has a market cap of $45.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.73, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $696.41 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.26 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.69%.

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.