Heron Bay Capital Management Grows Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Heron Bay Capital Management lifted its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,607 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. MSCI comprises about 1.5% of Heron Bay Capital Management’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Heron Bay Capital Management’s holdings in MSCI were worth $6,964,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of MSCI by 30.9% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $104,991,000 after purchasing an additional 41,346 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in MSCI by 4.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $312,574,000 after buying an additional 23,050 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 176.2% in the third quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $921,000 after buying an additional 1,008 shares during the last quarter. Nvwm LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 3,581.3% in the fourth quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,060,000 after buying an additional 1,719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 76.3% during the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,992 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,795,000 after buying an additional 1,295 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MSCI Trading Down 0.5 %

MSCI stock opened at $562.98 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.04, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $581.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $588.65. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.68 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $1.80 dividend. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.28%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MSCI. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

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.