Empire Life Investments Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Empire Life Investments Inc. decreased its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,676 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 70 shares during the quarter. Empire Life Investments Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $5,206,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 30.0% during the 3rd quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $329,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $104,991,000 after purchasing an additional 41,346 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $312,574,000 after purchasing an additional 23,050 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 339.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,642,000 after purchasing an additional 20,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 176.2% during the 3rd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $921,000 after purchasing an additional 1,008 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $572.78 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $44.89 billion, a PE ratio of 40.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $602.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $586.05. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.68 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.52%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.