Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $870.63 Million Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 2.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 37,340 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 1.90% of MSCI worth $870,627,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in MSCI by 129.4% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $352,153,000 after acquiring an additional 412,389 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $91,748,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the first quarter valued at $75,957,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in MSCI by 358.3% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 133,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $77,900,000 after purchasing an additional 104,474 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in MSCI by 18.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 581,558 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $325,936,000 after buying an additional 92,118 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on MSCI shares. Barclays raised their price target 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. Redburn Atlantic raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $574.82 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $580.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $531.77. The stock has a market cap of $45.05 billion, a PE ratio of 37.74, a PEG ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $631.70.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its 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. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.45 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.11%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 42.02%.

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.