Cerity Partners LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Cerity Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 29.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,715 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 8,142 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $11,370,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in MSCI by 11.9% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 890,123 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $513,370,000 after acquiring an additional 94,466 shares in the last quarter. Katamaran Capital LLP purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,806,000. Evelyn Partners Investment Management Services Ltd boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 158.9% during the second quarter. Evelyn Partners Investment Management Services Ltd now owns 4,971 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,774,000 after purchasing an additional 3,051 shares in the last quarter. waypoint wealth counsel purchased a new stake in MSCI in the second quarter worth $355,000. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc grew its stake in MSCI by 26.8% in the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 2,785 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,607,000 after purchasing an additional 588 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on MSCI shares. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Monday. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $655.90.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $537.84 on Thursday. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $40.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.08 and a beta of 1.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $558.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $562.14.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

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

MSCI announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to reacquire up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, General Counsel Robert J. Gutowski sold 624 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,904,006.90. The trade was a 3.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 10,210 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $536.13 per share, with a total value of $5,473,887.30. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 1,487,047 shares in the company, valued at approximately $797,250,508.11. The trade was a 0.69% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.