Sentry Investment Management LLC Cuts Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Sentry Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 415 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 45 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in MSCI. Bamco Inc. NY boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 0.7% in the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,260,105 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,159,615,000 after acquiring an additional 15,184 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 1.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,893,728 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $971,634,000 after acquiring an additional 30,528 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 2.2% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,637,256 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $914,510,000 after acquiring an additional 35,746 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 14.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,460,634 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $749,422,000 after acquiring an additional 179,508 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 32.1% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,281,834 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $717,432,000 after acquiring an additional 311,370 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Up 0.0 %

MSCI opened at $513.28 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $556.83 and its 200-day moving average is $539.26. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $451.55 and a 52-week high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.29 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $690.11 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $662.64 million. MSCI had a net margin of 45.42% and a negative return on equity of 111.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.84 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. MSCI’s payout ratio is 44.44%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MSCI shares. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $620.00 to $470.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, April 12th. StockNews.com cut shares of MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $659.00 to $648.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $581.57.

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.