Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt Boosts Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 121.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 221 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 121 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt’s holdings in MSCI were worth $125,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth approximately $378,140,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 646,050 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 803.9% during the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 587,978 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $331,906,000 after purchasing an additional 522,926 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 254.1% during the 3rd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 469,660 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $240,973,000 after purchasing an additional 337,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 32.1% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,281,834 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $717,432,000 after purchasing an additional 311,370 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $505.42 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $451.55 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39. The company has a market capitalization of $40.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $553.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $538.84.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.29 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $690.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.84 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.84 EPS for the current 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 $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.44%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on MSCI. StockNews.com cut MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Wolfe Research began coverage on MSCI in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Redburn Atlantic lowered MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their target price for the company from $620.00 to $470.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their price objective on MSCI from $659.00 to $648.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $581.57.

MSCI 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.