Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Sells 29 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division cut its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 24.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 92 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 29 shares during the quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division’s holdings in MSCI were worth $55,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake 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 last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in MSCI by 52.4% during the 3rd quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,779 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,203,000 after buying an additional 1,299 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. grew its position in shares of MSCI by 29.6% in the 2nd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 21,384 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,302,000 after buying an additional 4,890 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 339.6% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,642,000 after buying an additional 20,730 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 4.5% in the third 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 period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $601.48 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $601.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $567.52. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.14 billion, a PE ratio of 39.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.10.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.06%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 42.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSCI. Barclays increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.67.

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.