MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Stock Rating Upgraded by Raymond James Financial

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) was upgraded by stock analysts at Raymond James Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $650.00 target price on the technology company’s stock. Raymond James Financial’s target price points to a potential upside of 18.94% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on MSCI. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $654.73.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $546.49 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $564.37 and a 200-day moving average of $566.14. The company has a market cap of $42.28 billion, a PE ratio of 36.19, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.32. MSCI has a one year low of $486.73 and a one year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The firm had revenue of $772.68 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $763.06 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.64 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that MSCI will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total transaction of $2,762,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 289,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $160,133,398.33. This represents a 1.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 3.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Norges Bank bought a new position in MSCI in the 4th quarter worth approximately $609,937,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 16,353.6% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 587,557 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $352,539,000 after buying an additional 583,986 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,302,610,000 after buying an additional 518,833 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 355.7% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 660,690 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $365,976,000 after buying an additional 515,713 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 61,179.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 505,557 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $285,892,000 after buying an additional 504,732 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.