Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Has $1.37 Million Stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.3% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,429 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 32 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MSCI. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 4th quarter valued at $609,937,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in MSCI by 16,353.6% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 587,557 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $352,539,000 after buying an additional 583,986 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 61,179.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 505,557 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $285,892,000 after buying an additional 504,732 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in MSCI by 3,881.3% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 419,429 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $251,662,000 after buying an additional 408,894 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in MSCI by 169.4% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 507,413 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $304,453,000 after buying an additional 319,083 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price target on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $651.55.

MSCI Stock Up 0.9%

MSCI stock opened at $570.65 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $44.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.22, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.32. MSCI Inc has a twelve month low of $486.74 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The business has a fifty day moving average of $565.09 and a 200-day moving average of $568.46.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $745.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $746.45 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 145.52% and a net margin of 39.08%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 49.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total transaction of $2,762,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 289,787 shares in the company, valued at $160,133,398.33. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.