ING Groep NV Sells 3,155 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

ING Groep NV lessened its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 87.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 468 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 3,155 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV’s holdings in MSCI were worth $269,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in MSCI by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,674,093 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,489,177,000 after purchasing an additional 165,851 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,320,761 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,884,233,000 after purchasing an additional 39,450 shares in the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 10.3% during the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,394,117 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,358,446,000 after buying an additional 223,784 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in MSCI by 36.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,069,180 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $606,674,000 after buying an additional 282,859 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its position in MSCI by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,000,942 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $574,270,000 after buying an additional 39,099 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Andrew C. Wiechmann sold 450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $560.00, for a total transaction of $252,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 22,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,624,640. This represents a 1.96% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Alvise J. Munari sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $592.04, for a total value of $5,920,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 23,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,941,357.92. This represents a 29.81% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 3.76% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $710.00 to $720.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $655.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised MSCI from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $650.00 to $700.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Weiss Ratings upgraded MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $730.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and ten have issued a Buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $697.70.

MSCI Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $608.98 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $582.59 and a 200-day moving average of $569.94. MSCI Inc has a 12-month low of $501.08 and a 12-month high of $644.68. The firm has a market cap of $44.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.78, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.24.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $4.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.38 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $850.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $830.91 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 65.48% and a net margin of 40.74%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $4.00 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 19.62 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were given a dividend of $2.05 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.83%.

MSCI Profile

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.