Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Sells 802 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lowered its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 51,316 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 802 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $30,790,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in MSCI by 15.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 254,415 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $122,577,000 after buying an additional 34,351 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new position in MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth $343,000. Wealth Alliance bought a new stake in MSCI during the second quarter valued at about $279,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its position in shares of MSCI by 12.2% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 2,669 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,246,000 after purchasing an additional 291 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its position in shares of MSCI by 24.6% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 1,364 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $657,000 after purchasing an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $645.67.

MSCI Stock Up 1.4 %

NYSE MSCI opened at $609.49 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The stock has a market cap of $47.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.02, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $602.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $572.89.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period in the prior year, the company posted $3.45 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.99 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.05%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

About MSCI

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.