MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eleven have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $652.4545.

Several research firms have weighed in on MSCI. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, July 25th.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 84 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $548.69 per share, for a total transaction of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at $702,296,314.19. This represents a 0.01% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders acquired 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in MSCI by 1.4% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,508,242 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,483,783,000 after purchasing an additional 131,390 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,281,311 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,892,463,000 after buying an additional 45,547 shares in the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,170,333 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,251,718,000 after buying an additional 98,680 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,993,524 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,146,298,000 after buying an additional 34,335 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in MSCI by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,626,923 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $920,026,000 after buying an additional 13,918 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $564.81 on Tuesday. MSCI has a 52 week low of $486.73 and a 52 week high of $642.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $563.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $559.43. The firm has a market cap of $43.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.33.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.12 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $763.06 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.13% and a net margin of 39.46%.The company’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.64 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 47.68%.

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.