Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $1.99 Million in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,700 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,994,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. State Street Corp boosted its stake in MSCI by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,320,761 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,884,233,000 after buying an additional 39,450 shares during the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,755,747 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,581,055,000 after acquiring an additional 361,630 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,467,556 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,415,713,000 after acquiring an additional 52,242 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 13.2% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,446,291 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $829,781,000 after acquiring an additional 168,405 shares during the period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,000,942 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $574,270,000 after acquiring an additional 39,099 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, insider Alvise J. Munari sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $592.04, for a total transaction of $5,920,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 23,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,941,357.92. This trade represents a 29.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MSCI. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $690.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MSCI from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $730.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of MSCI from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $650.00 to $700.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $719.00 to $727.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and ten have issued a Buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $697.00.

MSCI Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of MSCI opened at $560.68 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $40.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.24. MSCI Inc has a 12-month low of $501.08 and a 12-month high of $644.68. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $591.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $572.94.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $4.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.17. MSCI had a net margin of 40.74% and a negative return on equity of 65.48%. The company had revenue of $850.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $830.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $4.00 earnings per share. MSCI’s revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 19.62 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $2.05 dividend. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.83%.

MSCI Profile

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.