MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Upgraded by Bank of America to “Neutral”

Bank of America upgraded shares of MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) from an underperform rating to a neutral rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $525.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $425.00.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on MSCI. Oppenheimer restated a market perform rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Raymond James reaffirmed a market perform rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Friday, January 5th. Barclays cut their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $600.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of MSCI from a hold rating to a buy rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of MSCI from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $569.53.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $467.04 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $534.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $536.42. MSCI has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $617.39. The company has a market capitalization of $37.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.88, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.09.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. MSCI had a net margin of 44.55% and a negative return on equity of 121.86%. The company had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.14 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that MSCI will post 14.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 43.69%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.69, for a total value of $4,245,210.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,831 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,052,254.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other MSCI news, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $459.41 per share, with a total value of $3,445,575.00. Following the acquisition, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $133,705,767.58. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.69, for a total value of $4,245,210.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 12,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,052,254.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Optiver Holding B.V. acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 5,600.0% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 57 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Headinvest LLC bought a new position in MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, American National Bank increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 1,300.0% in the 4th quarter. American National Bank now owns 70 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MSCI Company 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.