Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Purchases New Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 4,848 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,955,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Edgewood Management LLC boosted its position in MSCI by 16.9% during the third quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,279,904,000 after purchasing an additional 318,214 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in MSCI by 14.3% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $925,531,000 after purchasing an additional 198,666 shares in the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP boosted its position in MSCI by 700.4% during the fourth quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 186,131 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $111,680,000 after purchasing an additional 162,877 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Funds Management LTD purchased a new stake in MSCI during the fourth quarter worth $82,722,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in MSCI by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $967,820,000 after purchasing an additional 119,471 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group decreased their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

MSCI Trading Up 0.8 %

MSCI stock opened at $578.71 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.16, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $596.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $588.40. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 last year, the company earned $3.68 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $1.80 dividend. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.