TCW Group Inc. Sells 5,135 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

TCW Group Inc. lessened its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 27.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 13,824 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 5,135 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $8,295,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 30.0% in the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in MSCI by 30.9% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,991,000 after buying an additional 41,346 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in MSCI by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $312,574,000 after acquiring an additional 23,050 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 339.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,642,000 after acquiring an additional 20,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 176.2% during the 3rd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $921,000 after acquiring an additional 1,008 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $578.71 on Monday. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $642.45. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $596.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $588.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.68 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.21%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSCI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.23.

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.