UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC Has $282.19 Million Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 4.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 499,001 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 21,967 shares during the quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $282,185,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Menard Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the first quarter worth $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 136.4% during the first quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 52 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 50.0% during the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 66 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Banque Transatlantique SA lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 355.6% during the first quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA now owns 82 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $562.73 on Thursday. MSCI Inc has a 52 week low of $486.73 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $563.98 and a 200-day moving average of $559.37.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Raymond James Financial raised MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $652.45.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 9,916 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $544.70 per share, with a total value of $5,401,245.20. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 1,279,867 shares in the company, valued at $697,143,554.90. The trade was a 0.78% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders bought a total of 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599 over the last three months. 3.31% of the stock is currently 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.