Mather Group LLC. Boosts Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Mather Group LLC. increased its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 7.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 741 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the quarter. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $357,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in MSCI in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the first quarter valued at approximately $34,000. American National Bank boosted its stake in MSCI by 1,300.0% during the fourth quarter. American National Bank now owns 70 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. First United Bank & Trust acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC now owns 98 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on MSCI shares. Bank of America raised shares of MSCI from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $425.00 to $525.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.21.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock traded up $9.25 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $535.36. The company had a trading volume of 78,533 shares, compared to its average volume of 582,517. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.89, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.10. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $617.39. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $501.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $523.86.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The company had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $696.41 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.78 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.69%.

About MSCI

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.