MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Sold by RFG Advisory LLC

RFG Advisory LLC lessened its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 15.6% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 776 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 143 shares during the period. RFG Advisory LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $439,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Angeles Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 492 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $295,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,044 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,227,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in MSCI by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 256 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $157,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its position in MSCI by 21.9% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 117 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aurora Investment Managers LLC. boosted its position in MSCI by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Aurora Investment Managers LLC. now owns 3,754 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,123,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In related news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 289,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $160,133,398.33. This represents a 1.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $568.66 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 capitalization of $44.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.33. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $550.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $576.60.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $745.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $746.45 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th were paid a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.48%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on MSCI. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays lowered their price objective on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $645.36.

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.