Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Has $16.74 Million Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. reduced its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 29,597 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 195 shares during the quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $16,742,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Optiver Holding B.V. acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. ORG Partners LLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Headinvest LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of MSCI by 105.1% during the 3rd quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 80 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arlington Trust Co LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter worth about $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MSCI traded up $12.64 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $477.13. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 439,773 shares, compared to its average volume of 539,459. The stock has a market cap of $37.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.06. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $617.39. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $543.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $538.04.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. MSCI had a net margin of 44.55% and a negative return on equity of 121.86%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.14 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.76 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.69%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $620.00 to $470.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $562.87.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 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 directly owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $133,705,767.58. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $152,579,015.68. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares in the company, 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 Company 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.