MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Sold by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. reduced its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 680 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 21 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $408,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. LRI Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 120.0% during the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in MSCI in the third quarter worth $38,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA acquired a new stake in MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Y.D. More Investments Ltd boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 122.7% during the 4th quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 98 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Picton Mahoney Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth $60,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on MSCI shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $565.66 on Tuesday. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $577.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $588.96. The company has a market capitalization of $43.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.23, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.68 EPS. Equities analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders 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 represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.21%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 3.31% 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.