Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Sells 226 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund reduced its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,329 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 226 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,358,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MSCI. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 74.9% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $701,522,000 after buying an additional 623,712 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 129.4% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $352,153,000 after purchasing an additional 412,389 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in MSCI during the second quarter worth $91,748,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the first quarter valued at $75,957,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 358.3% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 133,636 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $77,900,000 after purchasing an additional 104,474 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on MSCI shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Redburn Atlantic raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Argus increased their price objective on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $631.83.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $593.86 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.54 billion, a PE ratio of 38.99, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $631.70. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $583.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $537.85.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The business had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.45 earnings per share. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th 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 1.08%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 42.02%.

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.