Empirical Asset Management LLC Raises Stock Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Empirical Asset Management LLC increased its stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 25.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,199 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $692,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in MSCI by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,302,610,000 after acquiring an additional 518,833 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 355.7% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 660,690 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $365,976,000 after acquiring an additional 515,713 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its holdings in MSCI by 605,802.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 212,066 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $129,903,000 after acquiring an additional 212,031 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the first quarter worth $119,408,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the first quarter worth $117,879,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 9,916 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The shares were bought at an average price of $544.70 per share, with a total value of $5,401,245.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,867 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $697,143,554.90. This represents a 0.78% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders have bought 12,400 shares of company stock worth $6,731,599. Insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Down 2.9%

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $533.72 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $563.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $558.78. The stock has a market cap of $41.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.35, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.33. MSCI Inc has a twelve month low of $486.73 and a twelve month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $763.06 million. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.64 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 47.68%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $647.70.

MSCI Company 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.