Venturi Wealth Management LLC Decreases Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Venturi Wealth Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 59.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 581 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 848 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC's holdings in MSCI were worth $339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of MSCI by 74.9% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $701,522,000 after purchasing an additional 623,712 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in MSCI by 129.4% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $352,153,000 after purchasing an additional 412,389 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at $91,748,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the first quarter worth $75,957,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 358.3% in the third 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on MSCI shares. Barclays raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group dropped their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $690.00 price objective for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MSCI traded up $7.89 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $610.53. The stock had a trading volume of 554,959 shares, compared to its average volume of 543,348. The business's 50-day moving average price is $581.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $535.52. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $631.70. The company has a market cap of $47.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.50, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last issued 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. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The company had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.45 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.05%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.