Fielder Capital Group LLC Takes $456,000 Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Fielder Capital Group LLC bought a new position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 760 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $456,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. LRI Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 120.0% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 35.1% in the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $581.09 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $45.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $594.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $588.93.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.68 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 51.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.