Insider Buying: MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) COO Purchases 7,500 Shares of Stock

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) COO Cd Baer Pettit acquired 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $133,705,767.58. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

MSCI Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of MSCI traded up $2.67 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $467.16. 93,739 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 535,411. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $543.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $538.04. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $617.39. The company has a market cap of $37.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.71, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $680.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. MSCI had a net margin of 44.55% and a negative return on equity of 121.86%. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.14 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.37%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MSCI

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter valued at $496,541,000. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 803.9% during the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 587,978 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $331,906,000 after acquiring an additional 522,926 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 59.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 762,080 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $391,008,000 after acquiring an additional 284,513 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3,600.0% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 253,636 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $143,469,000 after acquiring an additional 246,781 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 32.5% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 959,894 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $492,502,000 after acquiring an additional 235,290 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Friday, April 12th. Redburn Atlantic lowered MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $620.00 to $470.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $562.87.

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.