Henry Fernandez, CEO at MSCI (MSCI), recently bought 13,000 shares. The buy increased his holdings by 6%, and came to a total cost of $6.06 million.
He was joined by the company COO, who bought 7,500 shares for about $3.4 million on the same day. This marks a shift from last year, when company insiders were sellers of shares, including the company CFO. The sales mostly occurred at higher prices from where MSCI trades today.
Overall, MSCI insiders own 3.2% of shares.
The financial data company is down 3% over the past year. That’s in spite of a 14% increase in revenues, a 7% rise in earnings, and a massive 45% profit margin that the company sports.
Even with those strong financials, shares trade at about 30 times forward earnings, a slight premium to the overall market.
Action to take: Shares have been rangebound over the past year, and now trade near the lowest end of their range.
It’s possible that shares are due for a rally from here, and will start trending towards the higher end of their range, making for a reasonable buy now. MSCI shares also pay a 1.4% dividend.
For traders, the September $550 calls, last trading for about $8.00, could see mid-to-high double-digit returns on a trend higher in the months ahead.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any company mentioned in this article.