New York Life Investment Management LLC Sells 1,112 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

New York Life Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 9.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,481 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,112 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $6,289,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. LRI Investments LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 120.0% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in MSCI during the third quarter worth about $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in MSCI during the third quarter worth about $40,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new position in MSCI during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp lifted its stake in MSCI by 35.1% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MSCI. Barclays cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.23.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $590.15 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $593.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $589.33. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.83 billion, a PE ratio of 41.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.68 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 51.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.