Crestmont Private Wealth LLC Purchases 23 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Crestmont Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 647 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Crestmont Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $388,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wallace Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of MSCI by 63.1% during the fourth quarter. Wallace Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,595 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $930,000 after buying an additional 617 shares during the last quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of MSCI by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,603 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,562,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital raised its position in shares of MSCI by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 1,404 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $808,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Threadgill Financial LLC raised its position in shares of MSCI by 255.4% during the fourth quarter. Threadgill Financial LLC now owns 1,283 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $770,000 after buying an additional 922 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aprio Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $227,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MSCI. UBS Group cut their target price 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. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report 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 report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price 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. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $645.67.

MSCI Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of MSCI opened at $585.51 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $602.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $572.69.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The business’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.45 earnings per share. Analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.09%. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.