MSCI Inc $MSCI Shares Bought by State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System

State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its position in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 75,789 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 820 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System owned approximately 0.10% of MSCI worth $43,711,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in MSCI by 5.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,302,610,000 after acquiring an additional 518,833 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 355.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 660,690 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $365,976,000 after purchasing an additional 515,713 shares in the last quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $175,912,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 1st quarter worth approximately $119,408,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 1st quarter worth approximately $117,879,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Robert J. Gutowski sold 624 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $558.42, for a total value of $348,454.08. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 15,945 shares in the company, valued at $8,904,006.90. This represents a 3.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSCI. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings cut MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI upped their target price on MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $655.90.

MSCI Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $560.60 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $562.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $563.52. MSCI Inc has a 12-month low of $486.73 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $42.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34.

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

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.63%.

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.