53,402 Shares in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Bought by Strategic Financial Concepts LLC

Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 53,402 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,042,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC owned 0.07% of MSCI as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. McHugh Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at about $225,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,044 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,227,000 after buying an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $97,000. Choreo LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 33.8% during the 4th quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 3,712 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,226,000 after acquiring an additional 938 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nvwm LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3,581.3% in the 4th quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,060,000 after acquiring an additional 1,719 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MSCI. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $579.13 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $45.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $605.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $584.53. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.68 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.21%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Profile

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.