CWA Asset Management Group LLC Buys 17 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

CWA Asset Management Group LLC raised its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 418 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 17 shares during the quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $251,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,192,364 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,860,925,000 after purchasing an additional 11,351 shares in the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 16.9% in the third quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,279,904,000 after acquiring an additional 318,214 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,862,362 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,082,594,000 after purchasing an additional 13,691 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in MSCI by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $925,531,000 after buying an additional 198,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 2.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $870,627,000 after acquiring an additional 37,340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on MSCI. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $645.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $602.23 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.54, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50-day moving average of $602.60 and a 200 day moving average of $569.53. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.02%.

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.