MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Bought by Parnassus Investments LLC

Parnassus Investments LLC grew its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 27.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 36,002 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 7,830 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC's holdings in MSCI were worth $20,987,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in MSCI by 74.9% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company's stock worth $701,522,000 after purchasing an additional 623,712 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in MSCI by 129.4% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $352,153,000 after acquiring an additional 412,389 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the second quarter worth $91,748,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in MSCI during the first quarter valued at $75,957,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 358.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 133,636 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $77,900,000 after buying an additional 104,474 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSCI. Redburn Atlantic upgraded MSCI from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $680.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an "outperform" rating and a $690.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Argus increased their target price on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MSCI traded up $3.81 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $596.93. 457,233 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 542,529. The company's 50-day moving average is $584.32 and its 200-day moving average is $539.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.94, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $631.70.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $716.15 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.45 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.07%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

MSCI 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.