Henry A. Fernandez Purchases 5,300 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Stock

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $579.16 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $594.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $588.98. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $44.97 billion, a PE ratio of 41.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11.

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. Analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.21%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at $160,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at $218,000. Integrated Advisors Network LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 48.1% in the fourth quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 764 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $458,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares during the period. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX acquired a new stake in MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at $842,000. Finally, Value Partners Investments Inc. increased its position in shares of MSCI by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. now owns 4,285 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,569,000 after buying an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.23.

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.