Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Has $44.67 Million Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 68.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 79,703 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 32,336 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned approximately 0.10% of MSCI worth $44,670,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.7% in the first quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 44,620 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,007,000 after acquiring an additional 756 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.5% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,734,519 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $972,111,000 after acquiring an additional 9,304 shares during the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.9% in the first quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,105 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,905,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 17.7% in the first quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 3,858 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,162,000 after acquiring an additional 579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 11.1% in the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 221 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $124,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In related news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.69, for a total value of $4,245,210.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 12,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,052,254.39. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America upgraded MSCI from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $425.00 to $525.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group increased their target price on MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.21.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE MSCI opened at $540.55 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.90, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.10. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $617.39. The business’s fifty day moving average is $495.69 and its 200-day moving average is $524.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $696.41 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.26 EPS. Research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

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

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.