Mizuho Securities USA LLC Sells 1,004 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC reduced its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 16.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,100 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,004 shares during the quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $2,973,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new position in MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in MSCI during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp lifted its stake in MSCI by 35.1% in the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSCI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $631.83.

MSCI Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $589.25 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $586.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $541.49. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $631.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.18 billion, a PE ratio of 38.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. MSCI’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.45 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

MSCI 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.