Edgewood Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

by · The Cerbat Gem

Edgewood Management LLC lowered its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI – Free Report) by 7.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,093,347 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 162,795 shares during the period. MSCI makes up about 3.8% of Edgewood Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Edgewood Management LLC owned approximately 2.71% of MSCI worth $1,207,317,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth $547,348,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 5.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,302,610,000 after acquiring an additional 518,833 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 355.7% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 660,690 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $365,976,000 after acquiring an additional 515,713 shares during the last quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the second quarter worth about $175,912,000. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the first quarter worth about $119,408,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. UBS Group increased their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $655.90.

View Our Latest Stock Report on MSCI

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other MSCI news, General Counsel Robert J. Gutowski sold 624 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $558.42, for a total value of $348,454.08. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 15,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,904,006.90. This trade represents a 3.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $560.60 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $42.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34. MSCI Inc has a twelve month low of $486.73 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $562.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $563.52.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.37 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $793.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $794.87 million. MSCI had a net margin of 40.03% and a negative return on equity of 110.94%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.86 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th were paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 45.63%.

MSCI announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to purchase up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

MSCI Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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