Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. Has $1.15 Million Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. reduced its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 69.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,909 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 4,303 shares during the quarter. Keystone Investors PTE Ltd.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,145,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 2.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $870,627,000 after purchasing an additional 37,340 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 66.4% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,401 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,983,000 after acquiring an additional 1,357 shares during the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at $320,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 31.3% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 17,329 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,102,000 after purchasing an additional 4,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Algert Global LLC grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 1,127.9% during the third quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 5,759 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,357,000 after purchasing an additional 5,290 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MSCI. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays dropped their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $566.72 on Tuesday. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $581.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $588.73. The company has a market capitalization of $44.01 billion, a PE ratio of 40.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.68 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current 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 paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.