CW Advisors LLC Takes $5.97 Million Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

CW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 10,561 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,972,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of MSCI by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,302,610,000 after purchasing an additional 518,833 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in MSCI by 61,179.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 505,557 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $285,892,000 after buying an additional 504,732 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in MSCI by 3,881.3% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 419,429 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $251,662,000 after buying an additional 408,894 shares during the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its position in MSCI by 605,802.9% in the first quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 212,066 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $129,903,000 after acquiring an additional 212,031 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter worth $117,879,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Raymond James Financial raised MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 9,916 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 24th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $544.70 per share, with a total value of $5,401,245.20. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,867 shares in the company, valued at $697,143,554.90. The trade was a 0.78% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have acquired a total of 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599 in the last quarter. Insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $573.6240 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $563.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $560.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.99, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.29. MSCI Inc has a 52 week low of $486.73 and a 52 week high of $642.45.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. MSCI’s 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.