Citigroup Inc. Sells 785 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Citigroup Inc. lessened its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 77,220 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 785 shares during the quarter. Citigroup Inc. owned 0.10% of MSCI worth $45,014,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 15,959 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $8,943,000 after buying an additional 813 shares in the last quarter. BOKF NA lifted its holdings in MSCI by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. BOKF NA now owns 4,329 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,402,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in MSCI by 18.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 581,558 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $325,936,000 after buying an additional 92,118 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 23,366 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $13,095,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vancity Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 60.2% in the 1st quarter. Vancity Investment Management Ltd now owns 20,641 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,568,000 after purchasing an additional 7,755 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on MSCI shares. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target for the company. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $631.83.

MSCI Trading Up 1.4 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $589.57 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $46.21 billion, a PE ratio of 38.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $631.70. The company’s 50 day moving average is $586.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $542.48.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. MSCI’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.45 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

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.