Private Advisor Group LLC reduced its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI – Get Rating) by 68.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,072 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 4,526 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC's holdings in MSCI were worth $854,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Riverview Trust Co bought a new position in MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. AdvisorNet Financial Inc lifted its stake in MSCI by 178.3% during the 2nd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 64 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in MSCI by 76.6% during the 1st quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 83 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Sargent Bickham Lagudis LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 161.0% during the 2nd quarter. Sargent Bickham Lagudis LLC now owns 107 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at $50,000. 89.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MSCI. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on MSCI from $515.00 to $508.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 27th. Raymond James decreased their target price on MSCI from $515.00 to $493.00 in a research report on Friday, July 15th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on MSCI from $600.00 to $520.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 28th. UBS Group raised their target price on MSCI from $514.00 to $546.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 29th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on MSCI from $570.00 to $470.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $517.25.

MSCI Stock Up 2.3 %

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 26th. The technology company reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.70 by $0.08. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 151.89% and a net margin of 36.85%. The business had revenue of $551.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $560.24 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.45 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 11.34 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 12th were paid a $1.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 11th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.16%. This is an increase from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.04. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.44%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 5,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $501.46, for a total transaction of $2,507,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 27,408 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,744,015.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 3.02% of the company's stock.

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.

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