Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC Sells 229 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,690 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 229 shares during the quarter. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $8,563,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in MSCI by 74.9% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $701,522,000 after buying an additional 623,712 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 129.4% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $352,153,000 after purchasing an additional 412,389 shares during the period. Edgewood Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 16.9% in the 3rd quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,279,904,000 after buying an additional 318,214 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of MSCI by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $925,531,000 after buying an additional 198,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter valued at $91,748,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on MSCI shares. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Redburn Atlantic raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $608.06 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $592.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $548.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.93, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.10. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $631.70.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.05%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

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.