Man Group plc Boosts Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Man Group plc raised its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 62.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 181,033 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 69,915 shares during the period. Man Group plc owned 0.23% of MSCI worth $108,622,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Angeles Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 492 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $295,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,044 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,227,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 575 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $351,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 3,325 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,995,000 after buying an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Weaver Capital Management LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 712 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. 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 note on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $645.36.

MSCI Stock Down 0.8%

NYSE:MSCI opened at $564.15 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $548.85 and a 200 day moving average of $579.41. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $475.32 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. The company had revenue of $745.83 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $746.45 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.48%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total transaction of $2,762,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 289,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $160,133,398.33. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.