Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Raises Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 14.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 198,666 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in MSCI were worth $925,531,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 74.9% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $701,522,000 after purchasing an additional 623,712 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its position in MSCI by 129.4% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $352,153,000 after acquiring an additional 412,389 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth $91,748,000. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at $75,957,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 358.3% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 133,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $77,900,000 after purchasing an additional 104,474 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays lifted their target price on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Down 2.5 %

NYSE MSCI opened at $582.00 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $585.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $540.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.21, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $631.70.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.10%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

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.