Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 7.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,427 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $807,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its position in MSCI by 56.7% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 282 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $160,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the period. abrdn plc raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 346.0% during the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 108,080 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $61,135,000 after buying an additional 83,849 shares during the period. CNB Bank lifted its position in MSCI by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. CNB Bank now owns 859 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $486,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust boosted its holdings in MSCI by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 2,684 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,518,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC grew its position in MSCI by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,005 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $568,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on MSCI shares. 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 note on Wednesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on MSCI from $659.00 to $648.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Redburn Atlantic cut MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $620.00 to $470.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays raised their price objective on MSCI from $600.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $581.57.

MSCI Stock Up 0.9 %

MSCI opened at $510.07 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $552.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $539.43. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $451.55 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39. The firm has a market cap of $40.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.29 by $0.39. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 111.17% and a net margin of 45.42%. The business had revenue of $690.11 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $662.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.84 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.84 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were issued a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.