Canoe Financial LP Grows Stock Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Canoe Financial LP increased its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 12.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 209,831 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,500 shares during the period. MSCI comprises about 1.7% of Canoe Financial LP’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Canoe Financial LP’s holdings in MSCI were worth $119,060,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MSCI. Intact Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in MSCI by 16.0% in the second quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 138 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $80,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Gries Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.3% in the second quarter. Gries Financial LLC now owns 1,505 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $868,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Copperwynd Financial LLC raised its holdings in MSCI by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC now owns 1,793 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,034,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its position in MSCI by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,772 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,599,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. grew its holdings in MSCI by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 268 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $155,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, CFO Andrew C. Wiechmann sold 450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $550.00, for a total transaction of $247,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 21,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,901,450. This trade represents a 2.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 transaction of $348,454.08. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 15,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,904,006.90. The trade was a 3.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 3.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on MSCI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $642.63.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $581.43 on Friday. MSCI Inc has a fifty-two week low of $486.73 and a fifty-two week high of $634.99. The company has a market capitalization of $43.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.85 and a beta of 1.32. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $560.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $562.17.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $794.87 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 110.94% and a net margin of 40.03%.The firm’s revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.86 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to repurchase up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th were given a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.63%.

MSCI Profile

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.