Insider Selling: MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Insider Sells $4,245,210.00 in Stock

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.69, for a total transaction of $4,245,210.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,052,254.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

MSCI Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of MSCI opened at $467.04 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $37.00 billion, a PE ratio of 31.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day moving average is $534.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $536.42. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. MSCI had a net margin of 44.55% and a negative return on equity of 121.86%. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.14 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.66 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.69%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MSCI

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at $434,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,340 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,324,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 19.2% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 218,623 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $124,786,000 after acquiring an additional 35,277 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 13,659.5% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 10,182 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,759,000 after acquiring an additional 10,108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd increased its stake in MSCI by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 430,676 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $220,971,000 after buying an additional 12,495 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MSCI. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $526.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $569.53.

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.