Rathbones Group PLC Reduces Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Rathbones Group PLC reduced its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 27.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,912 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 16,243 shares during the quarter. Rathbones Group PLC owned 0.05% of MSCI worth $24,172,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in MSCI by 43.3% during the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 27,857 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,753,000 after buying an additional 8,412 shares during the period. Kathmere Capital Management LLC raised its position in MSCI by 21.3% in the first quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 809 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $457,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System grew its position in shares of MSCI by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 23,825 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $13,473,000 after acquiring an additional 1,354 shares during the period. Rainey & Randall Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at $252,000. Finally, CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 202.6% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 14,507 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,204,000 after purchasing an additional 9,713 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on MSCI shares. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $655.90.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $582.50 on Monday. MSCI Inc has a 1-year low of $486.73 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $562.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $561.89. The company has a market capitalization of $43.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.91, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.37 by $0.10. MSCI had a net margin of 40.03% and a negative return on equity of 110.94%. The firm had revenue of $793.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $794.87 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.86 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 is Friday, November 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 45.63%.

MSCI declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.