New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 3,953 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 55,761 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 3,953 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.07% of MSCI worth $33,457,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 862 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $517,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 30.1% during the fourth quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC now owns 868 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $521,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 84.9% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,074 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $644,000 after buying an additional 493 shares during the last quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 29,999 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $18,000,000 after buying an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of MSCI by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $967,820,000 after buying an additional 119,471 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MSCI Trading Down 0.0 %

MSCI stock opened at $574.51 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.61 billion, a PE ratio of 40.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $598.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $587.18.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.68 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 51.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group reduced their price objective on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.