Caprock Group LLC Grows Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Caprock Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 20.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,598 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 441 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,559,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LRI Investments LLC increased its position in MSCI by 120.0% during the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the third quarter worth $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Planning Capital Management Corp raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 35.1% in the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA boosted its position in MSCI by 35.1% during the 3rd quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on MSCI. Redburn Atlantic raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $596.83 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $607.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $582.76. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.45, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 168.58% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.68 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.91 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 45.52%.

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.