Nomura Holdings Inc. Makes New Investment in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 2,583 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,550,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 293.8% during the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 63 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Colonial Trust Co SC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 122.6% during the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 69 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 122.7% during the 4th quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 98 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 125.0% during the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 99 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Bank of America initiated coverage on MSCI in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 price objective for the company. Barclays cut their price target on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.36.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total value of $2,762,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 289,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $160,133,398.33. This trade represents a 1.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Trading Down 0.7%

MSCI stock opened at $571.26 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $475.32 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The firm has a market cap of $44.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33. The business’s 50 day moving average is $550.12 and its 200-day moving average is $579.20.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.88 by $0.12. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. The company had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $746.45 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.26%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.48%.

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.