LGT Group Foundation Sells 618 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

LGT Group Foundation reduced its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 6.4% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,080 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 618 shares during the quarter. LGT Group Foundation’s holdings in MSCI were worth $4,374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in MSCI by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,719,381 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,886,777,000 after buying an additional 36,043 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in MSCI by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,734,519 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $972,111,000 after buying an additional 9,304 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 74.9% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $701,522,000 after purchasing an additional 623,712 shares during the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 1,323,058 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $741,508,000 after purchasing an additional 23,217 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,038,761 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $587,575,000 after purchasing an additional 44,234 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MSCI. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, May 13th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of MSCI to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Argus boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $584.79.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $557.99 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $537.12 and its 200 day moving average is $521.63. The company has a market capitalization of $44.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $696.41 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The company’s revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.26 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.69%.

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.