Grove Bank & Trust Increases Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Grove Bank & Trust lifted its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 52.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,779 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,299 shares during the quarter. Grove Bank & Trust’s holdings in MSCI were worth $2,203,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 9.7% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 239,933 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $134,475,000 after acquiring an additional 21,310 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at about $904,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its holdings in MSCI by 9.6% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 88,097 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $49,307,000 after purchasing an additional 7,718 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $91,748,000. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 313.9% during the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 30,456 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $17,069,000 after buying an additional 23,097 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MSCI Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI traded up $3.44 on Monday, reaching $609.03. 51,259 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 544,962. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.25 billion, a PE ratio of 41.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39. The company has a 50 day moving average of $566.07 and a 200 day moving average of $524.36.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The company had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $696.41 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.26 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.8 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.05%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.69%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $614.14.

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.