Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Invests $3.19 Million in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund bought a new stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 5,624 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,191,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,003 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,133,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP boosted its stake in MSCI by 39.0% in the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 6,585 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,724,000 after buying an additional 1,846 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its position in MSCI by 20.9% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $607,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its stake in MSCI by 8.5% during the second quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 268 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $155,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.8% during the second quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 867 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $500,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Key MSCI News

Here are the key news stories impacting MSCI this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Seeking Alpha highlights a 13.9% dividend increase and continued double-digit growth outlook for MSCI, a direct positive for income and total-return investors. MSCI: 13.9% Dividend Hike And Double-Digit Growth
• Positive Sentiment: MSCI-driven index additions in major markets (example: Aditya Birla Capital and L&T Finance added to MSCI Global Standard Index) are expected to trigger sizable passive flows into the included stocks, underscoring the commercial importance of MSCI’s index decisions and supporting its recurring-fee franchise. Birla Capital, L&T Finance enter MSCI Index
• Positive Sentiment: MSCI’s increased exposure to Chinese tech in recent revamps (and resulting market moves) illustrates the firm’s influence on global flows and index composition, which can sustain demand for MSCI’s index products and data services. China Stocks Climb as MSCI Boosts Exposure
• Positive Sentiment: Ongoing trend of adding crypto-related and microcap names to MSCI indexes (examples reported this week) demonstrates expanding coverage breadth and keeps MSCI at the center of passive rebalances — a structural tailwind for its indexing and data business. Another crypto firm joins MicroStrategy in MSCI index
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts note MSCI inclusions tend to spur foreign investor interest into affected markets — a market dynamic that benefits index users and validates MSCI’s market impact, but doesn’t directly change MSCI’s revenue mix in the short term. MSCI inclusions to spur foreign interest – analysts
• Neutral Sentiment: Quarterly/annual commentary (Baron Fund note and coverage summaries) describes MSCI as holding steady amid macro and market challenges — supportive context but not a near-term stock mover on its own. MSCI (MSCI) Held Steady Amid Challenges
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/political friction surfaced after an MSCI “freeze” prompted government attention (Indonesia example), which can create short-term volatility in affected markets and raises governance/public-relations risk around index actions. Luhut Preps Recommendations to Improve Market After MSCI Freeze

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $690.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Monday, January 12th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $590.00 to $618.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $655.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings downgraded MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $659.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,290 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $536.17 per share, for a total transaction of $1,227,829.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 335,069 shares in the company, valued at $179,653,945.73. This represents a 0.69% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Robert J. Gutowski sold 624 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $558.42, for a total transaction of $348,454.08. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 15,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,904,006.90. This trade represents a 3.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI opened at $526.21 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.29. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $573.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $565.99. MSCI Inc has a one year low of $486.73 and a one year high of $626.28.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $4.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.62 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $822.53 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $819.51 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 82.59% and a net margin of 38.36%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.18 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 13th will be issued a $2.05 dividend. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.80. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 13th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.26%.

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

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.