Vontobel Holding Ltd. Lowers Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. decreased its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 17.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 29,527 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 6,080 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.'s holdings in MSCI were worth $17,716,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in MSCI by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,192,364 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,860,925,000 after buying an additional 11,351 shares in the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 16.9% in the third quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,279,904,000 after purchasing an additional 318,214 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,862,362 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,082,594,000 after purchasing an additional 13,691 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 14.3% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $925,531,000 after purchasing an additional 198,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $870,627,000 after purchasing an additional 37,340 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group dropped their price target on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $649.23.

MSCI Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of MSCI traded down $5.51 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $567.13. 223,245 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 529,238. The firm has a market cap of $44.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.32, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $600.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $587.04.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business posted $3.68 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. This is a boost from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is currently 45.52%.

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.