Cumberland Partners Ltd Grows Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Cumberland Partners Ltd lifted its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 120.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,500 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares during the quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd’s holdings in MSCI were worth $3,300,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. LRI Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 120.0% in the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI during the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA purchased a new position in MSCI in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp grew its holdings in MSCI by 35.1% in the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE MSCI opened at $574.18 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.84, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $599.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $587.27. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.68 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MSCI. Barclays lowered their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. 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 note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four investment 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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.