Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Increases Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 62.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 58,061 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,285 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned approximately 0.07% of MSCI worth $34,837,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Edgewood Management LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 16.9% in the third quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,279,904,000 after purchasing an additional 318,214 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the 4th quarter valued at $185,003,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI during the 4th quarter worth $126,082,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in MSCI by 14.3% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $925,531,000 after acquiring an additional 198,666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canoe Financial LP boosted its stake in MSCI by 700.4% in the fourth quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 186,131 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $111,680,000 after acquiring an additional 162,877 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $565.72 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $43.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $582.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $588.67.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 in the prior year, the company earned $3.68 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. 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 1.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on MSCI shares. Barclays cut their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.