Apeiron RIA LLC Grows Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Apeiron RIA LLC grew its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 13.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 768 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the quarter. Apeiron RIA LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $461,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Edgewood Management LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 16.9% during the third quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,279,904,000 after purchasing an additional 318,214 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $925,531,000 after buying an additional 198,666 shares in the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 700.4% in the 4th quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 186,131 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $111,680,000 after buying an additional 162,877 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 358.3% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 133,636 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $77,900,000 after acquiring an additional 104,474 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the third quarter valued at approximately $56,101,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on MSCI from $680.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.85.

MSCI Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $614.58 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $604.61 and a 200-day moving average of $577.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.35, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly 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. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.45 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.99 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 42.02%.

About MSCI

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.