AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc Buys Shares of 680 MSCI Inc $MSCI

AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc bought a new stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 680 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $392,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 136.4% during the 1st quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 52 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Steph & Co. acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 66 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Banque Transatlantique SA grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 355.6% during the 1st quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA now owns 82 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MSCI. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Evercore ISI raised their target price on MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. UBS Group raised their target price on MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $647.70.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 84 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $548.69 per share, for a total transaction of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at $702,296,314.19. The trade was a 0.01% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders acquired a total of 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $548.82 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $563.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $559.00. MSCI Inc has a 52-week low of $486.73 and a 52-week high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $42.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.35, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.33.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.13% and a net margin of 39.46%.The firm had revenue of $772.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $763.06 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.64 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 47.68%.

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.