Triglav Skladi D.O.O. Invests $525,000 in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Triglav Skladi D.O.O. bought a new position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 875 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $525,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of MSCI by 4.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $312,574,000 after purchasing an additional 23,050 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 3,121 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,873,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its position in shares of MSCI by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 659 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $395,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the period. Empirical Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the fourth quarter worth $278,000. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 76.3% in the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,992 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,795,000 after purchasing an additional 1,295 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE:MSCI opened at $571.26 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $44.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $550.12 and its 200-day moving average is $579.26. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $475.32 and a 1-year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.88 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $746.45 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.48%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays decreased their target price on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on MSCI in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 target price on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.36.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In related news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total value of $2,762,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 289,787 shares of the company’s stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company 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.