Vanguard Group Inc. Has $5.48 Billion Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,508,242 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 131,390 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.12% of MSCI worth $5,483,783,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in MSCI by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,993,524 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,146,298,000 after acquiring an additional 34,335 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,008,778 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $570,464,000 after purchasing an additional 19,846 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp increased its position in shares of MSCI by 2.2% during the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 969,850 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $559,351,000 after buying an additional 20,682 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in MSCI by 11.9% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 890,123 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $513,370,000 after acquiring an additional 94,466 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in MSCI by 2.6% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 804,640 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $455,024,000 after purchasing an additional 20,150 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $556.74 on Wednesday. MSCI Inc has a one year low of $486.73 and a one year high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $41.83 billion, a PE ratio of 35.28, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $563.87 and a 200-day moving average of $563.32.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.37 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $793.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $794.87 million. MSCI had a net margin of 40.03% and a negative return on equity of 110.94%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.86 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to repurchase up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 45.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on MSCI. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $655.90.

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.