Fortis Capital Management LLC Lowers Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Fortis Capital Management LLC cut its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 6.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,076 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 588 shares during the quarter. Fortis Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $4,708,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth $27,000. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth $40,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on MSCI. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $631.83.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $610.53 on Thursday. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $631.70. The company has a market capitalization of $47.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $581.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $535.52.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

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.