Baillie Gifford & Co. Has $392.40 Million Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 91.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 691,554 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 331,040 shares during the quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $392,395,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at about $547,348,000. Magellan Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth approximately $175,912,000. Banque Pictet & Cie SA purchased a new position in MSCI during the third quarter valued at approximately $145,986,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in MSCI by 27.7% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 786,321 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $453,513,000 after purchasing an additional 170,551 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in MSCI by 90.1% in the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 350,738 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $202,285,000 after buying an additional 166,208 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI opened at $589.11 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $44.27 billion, a PE ratio of 37.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $568.99 and a 200-day moving average of $565.30. MSCI Inc has a 52-week low of $486.73 and a 52-week high of $634.99.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.63%.

MSCI declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on MSCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $590.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Seaport Research Partners raised MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $650.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 10,210 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $536.13 per share, with a total value of $5,473,887.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,487,047 shares in the company, valued at approximately $797,250,508.11. The trade was a 0.69% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Robert J. Gutowski sold 624 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $558.42, for a total transaction of $348,454.08. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 15,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,904,006.90. This trade represents a 3.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Company 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.