Annandale Capital LLC Takes Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Annandale Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,900 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,096,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Arkadios Wealth Advisors grew its position in shares of MSCI by 56.7% during the 1st quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 600 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $339,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in MSCI by 6.7% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 18,148 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,263,000 after acquiring an additional 1,145 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new position in MSCI during the first quarter worth $218,000. iA Global Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in MSCI by 1.7% in the first quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,383 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,175,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Finally, Wealthspire Advisors LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 21.0% in the first quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 985 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $557,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, General Counsel Robert J. Gutowski sold 624 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $558.42, for a total value of $348,454.08. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 15,945 shares in the company, valued at $8,904,006.90. This represents a 3.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $546.74 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.65 and a beta of 1.32. MSCI Inc has a 52 week low of $486.73 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $561.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $563.09.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.37 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $793.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $794.87 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 110.94% and a net margin of 40.03%.MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.86 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to purchase up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th were paid a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MSCI. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Barclays raised their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $655.90.

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.