Banco Santander S.A. Trims Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Banco Santander S.A. reduced its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 35.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,894 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,048 shares during the quarter. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,136,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $251,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 492 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $295,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,044 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,227,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. Planning Capital Management Corp lifted its position in MSCI by 35.1% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA lifted its position in MSCI by 35.1% during the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays reduced their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

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

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $562.01 on Monday. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm has a market cap of $43.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $590.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $590.20.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.68 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.21%.

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.