Equitable Trust Co. Trims Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

by · The Markets Daily

Equitable Trust Co. lowered its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI – Free Report) by 8.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 556 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 52 shares during the quarter. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $321,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 15.4% in the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 142 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $80,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 540 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $306,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 361 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Gries Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Gries Financial LLC now owns 1,505 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $868,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Copperwynd Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC now owns 1,793 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,034,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $548.82 on Thursday. MSCI Inc has a 12-month low of $486.73 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $563.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $559.00.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The company had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $763.06 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.64 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.68%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 84 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $548.69 per share, with a total value of $46,089.96. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $702,296,314.19. This trade represents a 0.01% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders have bought 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599. 3.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $647.70.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on MSCI

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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