Quest Partners LLC Raises Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Quest Partners LLC grew its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 4,032.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,595 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 3,508 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC's holdings in MSCI were worth $2,096,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital International Investors raised its position in MSCI by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,734,519 shares of the technology company's stock worth $972,111,000 after purchasing an additional 9,304 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $870,627,000 after acquiring an additional 37,340 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,047,960 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $504,855,000 after acquiring an additional 13,620 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its position in MSCI by 129.4% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company's stock worth $352,153,000 after acquiring an additional 412,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in MSCI by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 637,381 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $307,058,000 after buying an additional 25,497 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MSCI. Argus increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $631.83.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock traded up $4.01 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $597.13. 457,229 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 542,529. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $631.70. The business has a 50 day moving average of $584.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $539.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.11.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.02%.

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.