Capital International Investors Has $972.11 Million Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 0.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,734,519 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,304 shares during the quarter. Capital International Investors owned 2.19% of MSCI worth $972,111,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,719,381 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,886,777,000 after purchasing an additional 36,043 shares during the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 1,323,058 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $741,508,000 after buying an additional 23,217 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,038,761 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $587,575,000 after buying an additional 44,234 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in MSCI in the 4th quarter valued at about $496,541,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 832,482 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $466,565,000 after acquiring an additional 13,060 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MSCI. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays upped their price objective on MSCI from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of MSCI from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $425.00 to $525.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.21.

MSCI Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE MSCI traded up $2.34 on Friday, hitting $540.55. 437,886 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 590,642. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $495.69 and a 200-day moving average of $524.55. The stock has a market cap of $42.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.10. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $696.41 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.26 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.74 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 43.69%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.69, for a total transaction of $4,245,210.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,831 shares in the company, valued at $6,052,254.39. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently 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.