Motley Fool Asset Management LLC Has $10.35 Million Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Motley Fool Asset Management LLC lowered its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 18,301 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 279 shares during the quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $10,352,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its stake in MSCI by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 165 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $93,000 after buying an additional 18 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 23.5% in the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 100 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. Balentine LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Balentine LLC now owns 572 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $293,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust increased its stake in MSCI by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 2,630 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,349,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in MSCI by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,193 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $675,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of MSCI from $530.00 to $425.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $562.87.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $464.49. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,468,921 shares, compared to its average volume of 541,102. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $543.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $538.04. The company has a market cap of $36.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.71, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.06. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $680.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. MSCI had a net margin of 44.55% and a negative return on equity of 111.33%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.14 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.81 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

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.