GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd Invests $66.70 Million in MSCI Inc $MSCI

GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd bought a new stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 119,105 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $66,704,000. MSCI makes up about 9.2% of GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $3,062,626,000. State Street Corp increased its position in MSCI by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,320,761 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,884,233,000 after purchasing an additional 39,450 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 15.1% during the 4th quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,755,747 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,581,055,000 after buying an additional 361,630 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,467,556 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,415,713,000 after buying an additional 52,242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 13.2% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,446,291 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $829,781,000 after buying an additional 168,405 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded MSCI from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial increased their price objective on MSCI from $730.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Evercore set a $722.00 target price on MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. UBS Group set a $615.00 target price on MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $700.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $709.50.

MSCI Trading Down 0.8%

MSCI stock opened at $564.08 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $582.30 and a 200-day moving average of $573.55. The company has a market cap of $41.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.86, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.23. MSCI Inc has a 12-month low of $501.08 and a 12-month high of $644.77.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $4.94 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.99 by ($0.05). MSCI had a negative return on equity of 55.19% and a net margin of 40.74%.The firm had revenue of $867.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $870.71 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $4.17 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 19.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be given a dividend of $2.05 per share. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 44.86%.

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.