Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Cuts Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lessened its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 34.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 77,801 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 41,072 shares during the quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P owned about 0.10% of MSCI worth $45,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new stake in MSCI during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp raised its position in MSCI by 35.1% in the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of 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 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI began coverage on MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price objective for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Up 0.5 %

MSCI stock opened at $592.70 on Tuesday. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $631.70. The stock has a market cap of $46.45 billion, a PE ratio of 38.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $586.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $543.26.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $3.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.02%.

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.