QRG Capital Management Inc. Sells 276 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

QRG Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 9.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,558 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 276 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,475,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 15.4% in the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 142 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $80,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 540 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $306,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 361 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Gries Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Gries Financial LLC now owns 1,505 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $868,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,261 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $713,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 9,916 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $544.70 per share, for a total transaction of $5,401,245.20. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,867 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $697,143,554.90. The trade was a 0.78% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In the last quarter, insiders purchased 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $568.74 on Wednesday. MSCI Inc has a fifty-two week low of $486.73 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $564.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $559.50. The company has a market capitalization of $44.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.33.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results 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. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.13% and a net margin of 39.46%.The firm had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $763.06 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.64 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was 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 47.68%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James Financial raised MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Seaport Res Ptn raised MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. UBS Group boosted their target price on MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $652.45.

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.