Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Reduces Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 39.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 11,062 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 7,230 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $6,637,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in MSCI by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $104,991,000 after acquiring an additional 41,346 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in MSCI by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $312,574,000 after acquiring an additional 23,050 shares in the last quarter. Nvwm LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 3,581.3% during the 4th quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,060,000 after acquiring an additional 1,719 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 76.3% during the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,992 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,795,000 after acquiring an additional 1,295 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Threadgill Financial LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 255.4% during the 4th quarter. Threadgill Financial LLC now owns 1,283 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $770,000 after acquiring an additional 922 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total transaction of $2,762,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 289,787 shares in the company, valued at approximately $160,133,398.33. This trade represents a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $556.15 on Monday. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $475.32 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $548.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $579.66. The company has a market cap of $43.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.56, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $746.45 million. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. Sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.29%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.48%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MSCI. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Bank of America assumed coverage on MSCI in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $645.36.

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.