Optivise Advisory Services LLC Acquires New Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Optivise Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 520 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $312,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $870,627,000 after buying an additional 37,340 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 26.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 919 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $536,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 76.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,209 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,117,000 after purchasing an additional 5,283 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 47.5% during the 3rd quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 975 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $568,000 after buying an additional 314 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in MSCI by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $312,574,000 after buying an additional 23,050 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Bank of America started coverage on MSCI in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $643.92.

MSCI Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $546.73 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $558.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $585.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.68 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.21%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total transaction of $2,621,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 294,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $154,542,084.75. The trade was a 1.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.