Hartford Investment Management Co. Trims Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Hartford Investment Management Co. decreased its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 5.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,324 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 296 shares during the quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $3,012,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $378,140,000. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 312.3% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 852,913 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $428,913,000 after purchasing an additional 646,050 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 254.1% in the third quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 469,660 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $240,973,000 after purchasing an additional 337,028 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in MSCI by 32.1% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,281,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $717,432,000 after purchasing an additional 311,370 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in MSCI by 59.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 762,080 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $391,008,000 after purchasing an additional 284,513 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Down 1.2 %

MSCI opened at $533.58 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $42.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.05, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.06. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $451.55 and a 12 month high of $617.39. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $565.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $538.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.29 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $690.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $662.64 million. MSCI had a net margin of 45.42% and a negative return on equity of 111.17%. The firm’s revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.84 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.8 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.44%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays upped their price objective on MSCI from $600.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, January 5th. StockNews.com cut shares of MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $544.00 to $617.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $578.21.

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.