MSCI Inc $MSCI Stock Position Lowered by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 3.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 146,814 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 5,761 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $79,083,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MSCI. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at $3,062,626,000. Bamco Inc. NY bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,798,710,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter valued at $480,613,000. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth about $301,493,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the second quarter valued at $257,687,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CFO Andrew C. Wiechmann sold 450 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.00, for a total value of $256,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 21,644 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,337,080. This represents a 2.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, General Counsel Robert J. Gutowski sold 2,381 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $623.66, for a total value of $1,484,934.46. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 14,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,796,100.64. This trade represents a 14.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on MSCI shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on MSCI from $729.00 to $684.00 in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their price objective on MSCI from $670.00 to $680.00 in a report on Monday, October 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $685.00 to $710.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 21st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $735.00 to $760.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $655.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $683.69.

MSCI Trading Up 0.6%

NYSE MSCI opened at $640.73 on Wednesday. MSCI Inc has a 12 month low of $501.08 and a 12 month high of $644.77. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $570.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $574.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.81 billion, a PE ratio of 33.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.20.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 20th. The technology company reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.03 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $892.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $887.83 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 50.69% and a net margin of 40.31%. The business’s revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.47 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 19.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 27th. Investors of record on Friday, November 13th will be given a $2.05 dividend. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 13th. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 43.41%.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) is a global provider of investment decision-support tools and services for institutional investors, asset managers, banks and other financial institutions. The company is best known for developing equity, fixed-income and multi-asset indexes used to benchmark portfolios and support the creation of investment products such as exchange-traded funds.

In addition to its indexes, MSCI provides portfolio analytics, risk-management and performance-attribution tools, as well as research and data covering environmental, social and governance factors, climate risk and sustainable investing.