MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Bought by Meitav Investment House Ltd.

Meitav Investment House Ltd. lifted its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 57.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,309 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,209 shares during the period. Meitav Investment House Ltd.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,926,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,719,381 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,886,777,000 after buying an additional 36,043 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,734,519 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $972,111,000 after acquiring an additional 9,304 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 74.9% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $701,522,000 after acquiring an additional 623,712 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 1,323,058 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $741,508,000 after acquiring an additional 23,217 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,047,960 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $504,855,000 after acquiring an additional 13,620 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on MSCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Argus upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price objective for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $624.23.

MSCI Stock Up 0.7 %

MSCI stock opened at $573.03 on Thursday. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $631.70. The stock has a market cap of $45.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $579.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $529.34.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.45 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.12%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.87%.

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.