Pier Capital LLC Raises Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Pier Capital LLC lifted its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 3.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,294 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Pier Capital LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,105,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Angeles Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI in the second quarter worth about $214,000. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 210.6% in the 2nd quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 9,749 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,697,000 after purchasing an additional 6,610 shares during the period. Malaga Cove Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $455,000. Andra AP fonden bought a new position in MSCI in the second quarter worth approximately $4,866,000. Finally, LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 470.7% in the 2nd quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. now owns 4,326 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,084,000 after acquiring an additional 3,568 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSCI. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $584.79.

MSCI Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $562.00 on Thursday. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $617.39. The firm has a market cap of $44.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $539.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $521.86.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.26 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.69%.

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.