502 Shares in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Bought by Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI

Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI bought a new position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 502 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $284,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the third quarter worth about $434,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,340 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,324,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 19.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 218,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $124,786,000 after buying an additional 35,277 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 13,659.5% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 10,182 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,759,000 after buying an additional 10,108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.0% during the third quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 430,676 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $220,971,000 after buying an additional 12,495 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $620.00 to $470.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $600.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $544.00 to $617.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $581.57.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $515.10 on Tuesday. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $451.55 and a 1 year high of $617.39. The company has a market capitalization of $40.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $550.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $539.55.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.29 by $0.39. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 111.17% and a net margin of 45.42%. The firm had revenue of $690.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $662.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.84 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were paid a $1.60 dividend. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 44.44%.

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.