Level Four Advisory Services LLC Boosts Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Level Four Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 8.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,401 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 816 shares during the quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $5,882,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Menard Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Olde Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in MSCI by 136.4% during the first quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 52 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in MSCI by 293.8% during the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 63 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its position in MSCI by 50.0% during the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 66 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $654.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 84 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $548.69 per share, for a total transaction of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $702,296,314.19. The trade was a 0.01% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have acquired a total of 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599 in the last quarter. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $574.1090 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.02, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.29. MSCI Inc has a 1-year low of $486.73 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $562.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $560.63.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.12 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $763.06 million. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.64 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.68%.

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.