Focus Partners Wealth Buys 4,299 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Focus Partners Wealth lifted its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 6.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 75,267 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,299 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth’s holdings in MSCI were worth $43,183,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 7.6% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,003 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,133,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 39.0% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 6,585 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,724,000 after purchasing an additional 1,846 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 20.9% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $607,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.0% in the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 35,130 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $20,261,000 after purchasing an additional 344 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Osterweis Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the second quarter worth about $88,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $719.00 to $727.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $730.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $700.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of MSCI from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $650.00 to $700.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and ten have issued a Buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $697.70.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, insider Alvise J. Munari sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $592.04, for a total transaction of $5,920,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 23,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,941,357.92. This represents a 29.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.76% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $610.21 on Tuesday. MSCI Inc has a 1-year low of $501.08 and a 1-year high of $644.68. The company has a 50-day moving average of $586.26 and a 200 day moving average of $570.81. The firm has a market cap of $44.42 billion, a PE ratio of 34.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.24.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $4.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $850.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $830.91 million. MSCI had a net margin of 40.74% and a negative return on equity of 65.48%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.00 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 19.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were given a dividend of $2.05 per share. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.83%.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.