IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI – Get Rating) by 24.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,358 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 2,643 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd's holdings in MSCI were worth $6,717,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,730,522 shares of the technology company's stock worth $4,123,726,000 after purchasing an additional 360,156 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in MSCI by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,662,015 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,243,680,000 after purchasing an additional 77,739 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of MSCI by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,909,071 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,782,359,000 after acquiring an additional 48,326 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,527,200 shares of the technology company's stock worth $933,388,000 after acquiring an additional 71,731 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of MSCI by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 872,945 shares of the technology company's stock worth $534,843,000 after acquiring an additional 8,753 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.76% of the company's stock.

MSCI Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $477.69 on Wednesday. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $376.41 and a twelve month high of $679.85. The company has a market capitalization of $38.45 billion, a PE ratio of 49.15 and a beta of 1.09. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $427.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $465.08.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 12th will be paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.05%. This is an increase from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.04. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 11th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is 42.80%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MSCI shares. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $514.00 to $546.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 29th. Raymond James reissued a "maintains" rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, July 27th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of MSCI to $507.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 27th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $600.00 to $520.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 28th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $533.00 to $477.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $509.25.

About MSCI

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MSCI Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides investment decision support tools for the clients to manage their investment processes worldwide. It operates through four segments: Index, Analytics, ESG and Climate, and All Other – Private Assets. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed product creation, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct.

Further Reading

• Get a free copy of the StockNews.com research report on MSCI (MSCI)
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