Trillium Asset Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Trillium Asset Management LLC cut its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 30.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,156 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,367 shares during the period. Trillium Asset Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,820,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 26.0% during the 2nd quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 660 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $381,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 568 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $328,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. now owns 466 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $249,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 48.7% during the 2nd quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S. now owns 5,402 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,116,000 after buying an additional 1,769 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in MSCI by 9.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 119,392 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $68,858,000 after buying an additional 10,242 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on MSCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial raised MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays lifted their target price on MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $655.90.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $571.85 on Thursday. MSCI Inc has a fifty-two week low of $486.73 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $42.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.24, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $562.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $561.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.37 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $793.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $794.87 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 110.94% and a net margin of 40.03%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.86 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 45.63%.

MSCI declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to buy up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.