MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Sold by abrdn plc

abrdn plc decreased its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 25.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 70,115 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 23,788 shares during the period. abrdn plc owned about 0.09% of MSCI worth $42,019,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,192,364 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,860,925,000 after acquiring an additional 11,351 shares during the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 16.9% during the third quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,279,904,000 after acquiring an additional 318,214 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,862,362 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,082,594,000 after acquiring an additional 13,691 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 14.3% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $925,531,000 after acquiring an additional 198,666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 2.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $870,627,000 after acquiring an additional 37,340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on MSCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays reduced their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $581.98 on Thursday. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm has a market cap of $45.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $606.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $584.53.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.68 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.85 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.