Buckhead Capital Management LLC Takes $204,000 Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Buckhead Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 360 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. ORG Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 5,600.0% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 57 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Headinvest LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Arlington Trust Co LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Finally, Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 12,831 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,052,254.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit acquired 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the acquisition, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $133,705,767.58. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on MSCI from $671.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays reduced their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on MSCI in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $569.53.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI traded up $4.24 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $470.03. 905,325 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 561,947. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $617.39. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $538.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $537.38. The firm has a market cap of $37.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $680.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 121.86% and a net margin of 44.55%. MSCI’s revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.14 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.59 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.36%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

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.