Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Sells 3,769 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio trimmed its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 9.5% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 35,817 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 3,769 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in MSCI were worth $20,074,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in MSCI by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 63,594 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,972,000 after purchasing an additional 1,664 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 8,881 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,023,000 after purchasing an additional 406 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 146.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 197 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $111,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 739 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $418,000 after buying an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quent Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 23.5% in the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 100 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Argus increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.21.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $542.35 on Tuesday. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $496.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $524.24.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The business had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $696.41 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.26 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.78 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.69%.

MSCI Company 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.