Federated Hermes Inc. Has $74.12 Million Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Federated Hermes Inc. decreased its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 23.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 131,033 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 40,254 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. owned about 0.17% of MSCI worth $74,119,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the fourth quarter worth approximately $378,140,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in MSCI by 312.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 852,913 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $428,913,000 after buying an additional 646,050 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its holdings in MSCI by 803.9% in the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 587,978 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $331,906,000 after acquiring an additional 522,926 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 254.1% during the third quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 469,660 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $240,973,000 after acquiring an additional 337,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 32.1% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,281,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $717,432,000 after acquiring an additional 311,370 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MSCI Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE MSCI opened at $505.42 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $553.65 and a 200-day moving average of $538.84. The firm has a market cap of $40.04 billion, a PE ratio of 35.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.06. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $451.55 and a 1-year high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.29 by $0.39. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 111.17% and a net margin of 45.42%. The firm had revenue of $690.11 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $662.64 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.84 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 44.44%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on MSCI shares. Barclays increased their price objective on MSCI from $600.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $659.00 to $648.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Edward Jones initiated coverage on MSCI in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $581.57.

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.