Rafferty Asset Management LLC Lowers Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Rafferty Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 8.0% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 25,455 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 2,200 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $14,395,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Menard Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI during the first quarter worth about $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 136.4% in the 1st quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 52 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 293.8% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 63 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 66 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on MSCI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $654.73.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $571.73 on Wednesday. MSCI Inc has a 12-month low of $486.73 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $44.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $564.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $560.16.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.13% and a net margin of 39.46%.The company had revenue of $772.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $763.06 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.64 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 47.68%.

Insider Activity

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 9,916 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 24th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $544.70 per share, for a total transaction of $5,401,245.20. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,867 shares in the company, valued at $697,143,554.90. This represents a 0.78% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders purchased 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599. Corporate insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

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.