MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Receives $646.58 Average PT from Brokerages

Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $643.92.

MSCI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America started coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays lowered their price objective on MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $546.73 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $559.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $585.92. The stock has a market cap of $42.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.89, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. MSCI has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 prior year, the company earned $3.68 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that MSCI will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total value of $2,621,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 294,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $154,542,084.75. The trade was a 1.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in MSCI by 30.9% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,991,000 after purchasing an additional 41,346 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $312,574,000 after buying an additional 23,050 shares in the last quarter. Nvwm LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3,581.3% in the fourth quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,060,000 after buying an additional 1,719 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 76.3% in the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,992 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,795,000 after buying an additional 1,295 shares during the period. Finally, Threadgill Financial LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 255.4% during the fourth quarter. Threadgill Financial LLC now owns 1,283 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $770,000 after buying an additional 922 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.