Vontobel Holding Ltd. Sells 78 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. decreased its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 0.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 35,607 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 78 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $20,756,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 4,404 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,567,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Washington Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in MSCI in the third quarter worth about $233,000. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 50.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 953 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $555,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 15.6% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,090 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,465,000 after buying an additional 1,499 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI in the third quarter worth approximately $224,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on MSCI shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Argus increased their price objective on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $614.14.

MSCI Stock Down 0.9 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $607.51 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.47, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $617.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $571.29 and a 200 day moving average of $525.64.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.05%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.69%.

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.