MSCI Inc $MSCI Shares Sold by BNP Paribas Financial Markets

BNP Paribas Financial Markets trimmed its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 17.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 131,936 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 27,977 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in MSCI were worth $74,862,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GFI Investment Counsel Ltd. boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. GFI Investment Counsel Ltd. now owns 119,316 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $67,701,000 after purchasing an additional 767 shares during the period. Tsai Capital Corp raised its position in MSCI by 2.2% in the third quarter. Tsai Capital Corp now owns 6,743 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,826,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the period. FourThought Financial Partners LLC raised its position in MSCI by 6.8% in the third quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC now owns 9,812 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,567,000 after purchasing an additional 621 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in MSCI by 16.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 89,731 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $50,915,000 after purchasing an additional 12,406 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 23.1% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 146,969 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $83,392,000 after buying an additional 27,577 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on MSCI shares. UBS Group set a $638.00 price objective on MSCI in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Bank of America initiated coverage on MSCI in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $700.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $590.00 to $618.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Evercore increased their price target on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $715.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $671.78.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $524.18 per share, for a total transaction of $3,145,080.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,493,047 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $782,625,376.46. The trade was a 0.40% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI opened at $536.64 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $568.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $565.04. MSCI Inc has a 12 month low of $486.73 and a 12 month high of $626.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.20, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.29.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $4.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.62 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $822.53 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $819.51 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 82.59% and a net margin of 38.36%.MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.18 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 13th were issued a $2.05 dividend. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.80. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 13th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 52.26%.

MSCI Profile

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.