Natural Investments LLC Takes $2.17 Million Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Natural Investments LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 3,620 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,172,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 452 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $264,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.6% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Equitable Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 24.8% during the 3rd quarter. Equitable Trust Co. now owns 608 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $354,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at $234,000. Finally, Bridges Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at $232,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $544.63 on Tuesday. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $642.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.74, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $588.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $590.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS 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 period last year, the business posted $3.68 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.32%. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.