Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Reduces Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. trimmed its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,235 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 38 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $741,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MSCI. LRI Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 120.0% during the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the third quarter valued at about $38,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Private Trust Co. NA boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 35.1% in the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Y.D. More Investments Ltd grew its stake in MSCI by 122.7% during the fourth quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 98 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on MSCI. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays dropped their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MSCI has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $565.72 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.24, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $642.45. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $579.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $588.55.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its 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 quarter last year, the company posted $3.68 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s payout ratio is 51.21%.

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.