Franklin Resources Inc. Sells 215,686 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Franklin Resources Inc. lowered its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 36.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 370,706 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 215,686 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $210,342,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the third quarter worth $27,000. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Strategic Wealth Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in MSCI by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 68 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eastern Bank bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at about $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $524.18 per share, for a total transaction of $3,145,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,493,047 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $782,625,376.46. This represents a 0.40% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 3.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

MSCI Stock Down 1.9%

MSCI stock opened at $536.64 on Friday. MSCI Inc has a twelve month low of $486.73 and a twelve month high of $626.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $568.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $565.04.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $4.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.62 by $0.04. MSCI had a net margin of 38.36% and a negative return on equity of 82.59%. The firm had revenue of $822.53 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $819.51 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.18 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 13th were paid a $2.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 13th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.80. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 52.26%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MSCI. Evercore raised their price objective on MSCI from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on MSCI from $590.00 to $618.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. UBS Group set a $638.00 price target on MSCI in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $715.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded MSCI from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $671.78.

MSCI Profile

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.