City Holding Co. Sells 479 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

City Holding Co. reduced its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 14.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,799 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 479 shares during the quarter. City Holding Co.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,679,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Grove Bank & Trust grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,902 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,341,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. J2 Capital Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth $274,000. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 20.7% during the fourth quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 461 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $277,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. WealthBridge Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. WealthBridge Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 2,037 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,222,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,377 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $826,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 target price on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.67.

MSCI Trading Up 0.4 %

MSCI stock opened at $612.25 on Monday. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $47.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.20, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $603.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $574.64.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted 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. 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.45 EPS. MSCI’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.99 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.05%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

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.