Valeo Financial Advisors LLC Acquires 92 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Valeo Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 16.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 637 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $360,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter worth $378,140,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 646,050 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its holdings in MSCI by 803.9% in the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 587,978 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $331,906,000 after acquiring an additional 522,926 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 254.1% in the third quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 469,660 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $240,973,000 after acquiring an additional 337,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 32.1% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,281,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $717,432,000 after acquiring an additional 311,370 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Friday, January 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on MSCI in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Edward Jones assumed coverage on MSCI in a report on Friday, December 22nd. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, Redburn Atlantic lowered MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $620.00 to $470.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $581.57.

MSCI Stock Down 1.5 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $526.62 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.06. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $451.55 and a twelve month high of $617.39. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $559.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $539.32.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 negative return on equity of 111.17% and a net margin of 45.42%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.84 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.84 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were given a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. MSCI’s payout ratio is 44.44%.

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.