Meitav Investment House Ltd. Purchases 347 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Meitav Investment House Ltd. boosted its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 10.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,656 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the period. Meitav Investment House Ltd.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $2,194,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 30.0% in the 3rd quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 30.9% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,991,000 after buying an additional 41,346 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in MSCI by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $312,574,000 after acquiring an additional 23,050 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 339.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,642,000 after acquiring an additional 20,730 shares during the period. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of MSCI by 176.2% in the 3rd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $921,000 after acquiring an additional 1,008 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $574.18 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $599.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $587.27. The firm has a market cap of $44.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.68 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI 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, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MSCI. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. 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. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.23.

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.