Silver Oak Securities Incorporated Raises Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Silver Oak Securities Incorporated increased its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 20,850.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 838 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 834 shares during the period. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated’s holdings in MSCI were worth $474,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI in the third quarter worth $434,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,340 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,324,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 218,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $124,786,000 after acquiring an additional 35,277 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 13,659.5% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 10,182 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,759,000 after acquiring an additional 10,108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 3.0% in the third quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 430,676 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $220,971,000 after acquiring an additional 12,495 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSCI. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on MSCI from $671.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Friday, January 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Friday, April 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $569.53.

MSCI Stock Down 2.3 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $465.84 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $538.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $537.38. The stock has a market cap of $36.90 billion, a PE ratio of 31.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.06. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 121.86% and a net margin of 44.55%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.14 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at approximately $152,579,015.68. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at approximately $152,579,015.68. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit acquired 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $459.41 per share, with a total value of $3,445,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $133,705,767.58. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.