MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Acquired by GAMMA Investing LLC

GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 98.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 825 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 410 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $495,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 30.0% in the 3rd quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $329,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust lifted its position in shares of 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 last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in MSCI by 29.6% in the second quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 21,384 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,302,000 after acquiring an additional 4,890 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 339.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,642,000 after buying an additional 20,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings 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 valued at $312,574,000 after buying an additional 23,050 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $601.48 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $601.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $567.52. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The stock 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 released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.45 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

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.