Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd Sells 481 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd lowered its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 49.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 484 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 481 shares during the period. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd’s holdings in MSCI were worth $290,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,897,456 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,136,563,000 after acquiring an additional 35,094 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in MSCI by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $967,820,000 after purchasing an additional 119,471 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp grew its stake in MSCI by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,148,615 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $689,180,000 after buying an additional 49,679 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the 4th quarter worth $609,937,000. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 569,374 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $341,630,000 after buying an additional 84,354 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of MSCI opened at $505.79 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.97, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $570.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $588.31.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted 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 net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.68 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 51.21%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on MSCI. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded 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 research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $647.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total value of $2,621,250.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 294,787 shares in the company, valued at $154,542,084.75. This represents a 1.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

MSCI Company 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.