Sanctuary Advisors LLC Buys 2,551 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 66.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,412 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,551 shares during the quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $3,780,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 92.8% in the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 120,457 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $58,030,000 after purchasing an additional 57,987 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 26,051 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $12,550,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 18.2% in the 2nd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,543 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,707,000 after buying an additional 546 shares in the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management raised its holdings in MSCI by 3.7% during the second quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 4,021 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,937,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the period. Finally, Pallas Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the second quarter valued at about $728,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on MSCI. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.58.

MSCI Trading Down 1.0 %

MSCI opened at $618.61 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $600.59 and a 200 day moving average of $556.02. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The firm has a market cap of $48.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.10.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.45 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.02%.

MSCI 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.