MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) COO Cd Baer Pettit Buys 7,500 Shares

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) COO Cd Baer Pettit acquired 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $133,705,767.58. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

MSCI Stock Up 0.6 %

MSCI traded up $2.67 during trading on Friday, reaching $467.16. 93,739 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 535,411. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $543.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $538.04. The company has a market capitalization of $37.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.71, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. MSCI had a net margin of 44.55% and a negative return on equity of 121.86%. The firm had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.14 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.76 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.37%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.69%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in MSCI during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. ORG Partners LLC boosted its position in MSCI by 5,600.0% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 57 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Headinvest LLC acquired a new position in MSCI during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, American National Bank boosted its position in MSCI by 1,300.0% during the 4th quarter. American National Bank now owns 70 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, April 12th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $562.87.

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.