Liontrust Investment Partners LLP Purchases Shares of 1,333 MSCI Inc $MSCI

Liontrust Investment Partners LLP purchased a new stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,333 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $756,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Aviso Financial Inc. increased its holdings in MSCI by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. now owns 859 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $487,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 16.0% during the second quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 138 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.7% during the second quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,772 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,599,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance raised its position in MSCI by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 509 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $289,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 3,300 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,872,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $700.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $590.00 to $618.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $715.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Evercore increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $674.00.

MSCI Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of MSCI opened at $561.02 on Wednesday. MSCI Inc has a 12 month low of $486.73 and a 12 month high of $626.28. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $567.54 and its 200-day moving average is $564.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.22 billion, a PE ratio of 35.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.29.

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. The company had revenue of $822.53 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $819.51 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 82.59% and a net margin of 38.36%.MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.18 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 13th were given a dividend of $2.05 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 13th. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.80. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.26%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $518.95 per share, for a total transaction of $415,160.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 1,493,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $775,231,900.65. This represents a 0.05% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About MSCI

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.