Logan Capital Management Inc. Cuts Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Logan Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 19.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,942 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,730 shares during the quarter. Logan Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $4,004,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 336.4% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 96 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 10.0% in the 2nd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 8,882 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,123,000 after buying an additional 809 shares in the last quarter. waypoint wealth counsel acquired a new position in MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth $355,000. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 524 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $296,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ascent Group LLC acquired a new position in MSCI in the 1st quarter worth $288,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on MSCI. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Saturday. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $647.70.

MSCI Trading Up 8.4%

MSCI stock opened at $592.75 on Wednesday. MSCI Inc has a twelve month low of $486.73 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $45.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.25, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.33. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $561.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $559.82.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.37 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $793.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $794.87 million. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.86 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 47.68%.

MSCI declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to reacquire up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.