Essex Savings Bank Invests $203,000 in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Essex Savings Bank bought a new position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 338 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new stake in MSCI during the second quarter worth about $27,000. LRI Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 120.0% during the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp lifted its stake 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 last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Redburn Atlantic raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI started coverage on MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.67.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $609.49 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $47.77 billion, a PE ratio of 40.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $642.45. The business’s fifty day moving average is $602.89 and its 200 day moving average is $572.89.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.45 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.05%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.