Groupama Asset Managment Boosts Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Groupama Asset Managment boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 65.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,211 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,663 shares during the quarter. Groupama Asset Managment’s holdings in MSCI were worth $2,525,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MSCI. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 63.4% in the 4th quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 6,479 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,887,000 after purchasing an additional 2,513 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,897,456 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,136,563,000 after buying an additional 35,094 shares in the last quarter. GFI Investment Counsel Ltd. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. GFI Investment Counsel Ltd. now owns 116,611 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $69,968,000 after buying an additional 1,239 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in MSCI by 187.8% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 196,148 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $117,691,000 after purchasing an additional 128,001 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in MSCI by 19.1% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 249,035 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $149,423,000 after purchasing an additional 39,978 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MSCI. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.23.

MSCI Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of MSCI opened at $566.98 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $44.03 billion, a PE ratio of 40.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $576.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $588.99.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 period in the prior year, the business earned $3.68 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 51.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.