MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Sold by Summit Trail Advisors LLC

Summit Trail Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 11.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 397 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 49 shares during the period. Summit Trail Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $225,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Optiver Holding B.V. purchased a new stake in MSCI during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. ORG Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 5,600.0% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 57 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Headinvest LLC acquired a new position in MSCI in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in MSCI in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC grew its position in MSCI by 23.5% during the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 100 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays reduced their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com cut MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $569.53.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $470.72 on Thursday. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $617.39. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $528.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $536.16. The company has a market capitalization of $37.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.13, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.09.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 121.86% and a net margin of 44.55%. The business had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.14 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.66 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

About MSCI

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.