Ieq Capital LLC Purchases 6,072 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Ieq Capital LLC raised its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 97.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 12,308 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 6,072 shares during the quarter. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $7,385,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Freedom Day Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 4,878 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,927,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 1,300.8% in the 4th quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 23,337 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,002,000 after buying an additional 21,671 shares during the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. increased its stake in MSCI by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 862 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $517,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 30.1% during the 4th quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC now owns 868 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $521,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 84.9% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,074 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $644,000 after buying an additional 493 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

Insider Activity

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $574.51 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $598.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $587.18. The firm has a market cap of $44.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $642.45.

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

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.21%.

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.