FourThought Financial Partners LLC Has $4.89 Million Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 37.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,144 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,218 shares during the quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $4,887,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in MSCI by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 517,769 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $310,667,000 after purchasing an additional 10,436 shares during the last quarter. GHE LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. GHE LLC now owns 5,670 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,305,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 11.3% during the fourth quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 492 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $295,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in MSCI by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 2,071 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,243,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,955,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $573.31 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $595.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $588.70. The company has a market cap of $44.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.78, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.68 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.21%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on MSCI. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.