MSCI Inc $MSCI Shares Bought by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 580,125 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,859 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.75% of MSCI worth $334,581,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in MSCI by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,508,242 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,483,783,000 after buying an additional 131,390 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,993,524 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,146,298,000 after acquiring an additional 34,335 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of MSCI by 2.0% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,008,778 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $570,464,000 after acquiring an additional 19,846 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 969,850 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $559,351,000 after acquiring an additional 20,682 shares during the period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in MSCI by 11.9% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 890,123 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $513,370,000 after purchasing an additional 94,466 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSCI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $655.90.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $562.03 on Friday. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The business’s fifty day moving average is $562.90 and its 200-day moving average is $563.47. The stock has a market cap of $42.23 billion, a PE ratio of 35.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.37 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $793.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $794.87 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 110.94% and a net margin of 40.03%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.86 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be paid a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 45.63%.

MSCI announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to purchase up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.