B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,602 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $961,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Edgewood Management LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 16.9% in the third quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,279,904,000 after purchasing an additional 318,214 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in 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 during the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP lifted its holdings in MSCI by 700.4% during 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. lifted its stake in MSCI by 358.3% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 133,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $77,900,000 after purchasing an additional 104,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI during the third quarter worth approximately $56,101,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at MSCI

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSCI. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on MSCI from $680.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.85.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $620.22 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $48.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $605.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $578.36.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.45 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.03%. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 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.