Bank of New York Mellon Corp Has $310.67 Million Stock Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 2.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 517,769 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,436 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in MSCI were worth $310,667,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. LRI Investments LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 120.0% in the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new position in MSCI during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp increased its position in MSCI by 35.1% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $579.16 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $594.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $588.98.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $3.68 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 51.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MSCI shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

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.