Marks Group Wealth Management Inc Reduces Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Marks Group Wealth Management Inc decreased its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 56.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,728 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 12,376 shares during the period. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc’s holdings in MSCI were worth $5,581,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Katamaran Capital LLP raised its holdings in MSCI by 57.1% in the third quarter. Katamaran Capital LLP now owns 4,919 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,791,000 after purchasing an additional 1,788 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI by 10.5% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 36,996 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $20,992,000 after purchasing an additional 3,510 shares in the last quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV raised its holdings in MSCI by 253.0% in the third quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 3,202 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,817,000 after purchasing an additional 2,295 shares in the last quarter. PICTET BANK & TRUST Ltd raised its holdings in MSCI by 116.8% in the fourth quarter. PICTET BANK & TRUST Ltd now owns 5,150 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,955,000 after purchasing an additional 2,775 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vinva Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in MSCI by 34.3% in the third quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 80,689 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,981,000 after purchasing an additional 20,606 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America assumed coverage on MSCI in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $700.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded MSCI from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $650.00 to $700.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $730.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Weiss Ratings upgraded MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $655.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and ten have given a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $697.70.

MSCI Trading Down 2.0%

NYSE MSCI opened at $602.98 on Tuesday. MSCI Inc has a 12 month low of $501.08 and a 12 month high of $644.68. The stock has a market cap of $43.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $579.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $569.26.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $4.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.38 by $0.17. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 65.48% and a net margin of 40.74%.The firm had revenue of $850.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $830.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.00 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 19.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a $2.05 dividend. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.83%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Andrew C. Wiechmann sold 450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $560.00, for a total transaction of $252,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,624,640. This represents a 1.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Alvise J. Munari sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $592.04, for a total value of $5,920,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 23,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,941,357.92. The trade was a 29.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.76% of the company’s stock.

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.