First Hawaiian Bank Sells 588 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

First Hawaiian Bank reduced its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,359 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 588 shares during the quarter. First Hawaiian Bank’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,576,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in MSCI by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,771,308 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,789,834,000 after acquiring an additional 194,995 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in MSCI by 59.7% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,382,561 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,108,296,000 after buying an additional 890,554 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in MSCI by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,182,687 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,015,320,000 after buying an additional 467,592 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,637,256 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $914,510,000 after buying an additional 35,746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in MSCI by 32.1% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,281,834 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $717,432,000 after buying an additional 311,370 shares in the last quarter. 88.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In related news, General Counsel Robert J. Gutowski sold 1,478 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $520.00, for a total value of $768,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 15,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,893,080. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other MSCI news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $555.89, for a total value of $1,000,602.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 18,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,158,333.86. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Robert J. Gutowski sold 1,478 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $520.00, for a total transaction of $768,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 15,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,893,080. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

MSCI Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $530.16 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $529.77 and a 200-day moving average of $510.91. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $385.00 and a 1-year high of $572.50. The company has a market cap of $41.94 billion, a PE ratio of 46.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.13.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The technology company reported $3.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.15. MSCI had a net margin of 39.02% and a negative return on equity of 93.06%. The company had revenue of $621.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $602.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.78 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 13.12 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 31st. Investors of record on Friday, August 11th were paid a $1.38 dividend. This represents a $5.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 10th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 48.38%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. BNP Paribas cut shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $450.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $574.00 to $592.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of MSCI from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $650.00 to $554.00 in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $640.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $564.14.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides investment decision support tools for the clients to manage their investment processes worldwide. It operates through four segments: Index, Analytics, ESG and Climate, and All Other Private Assets. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed product creation, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct.