Alamar Capital Management LLC Reduces Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Alamar Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 4.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,986 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 235 shares during the period. MSCI makes up about 1.7% of Alamar Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. Alamar Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $2,820,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lido Advisors LLC grew its position in MSCI by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 1,157 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $694,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares during the last quarter. Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in MSCI in the 4th quarter worth about $825,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in MSCI by 144.1% in the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 23,926 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,356,000 after purchasing an additional 14,126 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its position in MSCI by 23.9% in the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 3,743 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,246,000 after purchasing an additional 722 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in MSCI in the 4th quarter worth about $338,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 84 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $548.69 per share, for a total transaction of $46,089.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at $702,296,314.19. This represents a 0.01% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last three months, insiders have purchased 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $567.57 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $43.91 billion, a PE ratio of 37.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.34. MSCI Inc has a 52 week low of $486.73 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $565.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $559.90.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were given a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 47.68%.

MSCI 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.