Advisors Asset Management Inc. Has $3.05 Million Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 49.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,087 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,686 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $3,052,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LRI Investments LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 120.0% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new position in MSCI during the third quarter worth $38,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA acquired a new position in MSCI during the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Private Trust Co. NA raised its position in MSCI by 35.1% during the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Y.D. More Investments Ltd raised its position in MSCI by 122.7% during the fourth quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 98 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $562.98 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $581.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $588.55. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $43.72 billion, a PE ratio of 40.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.68 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.