Brokerages Set MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) Target Price at $655.90

MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $655.90.

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MSCI from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,508,242 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,483,783,000 after purchasing an additional 131,390 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings 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 worth $1,892,463,000 after acquiring an additional 45,547 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY lifted its holdings 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 worth $1,251,718,000 after acquiring an additional 98,680 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 34,335 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,008,778 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $570,464,000 after acquiring an additional 19,846 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $580.71 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $43.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.80, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $561.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $560.79. MSCI has a 52 week low of $486.73 and a 52 week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.37 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $793.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $794.87 million. MSCI had a net margin of 40.03% and a negative return on equity of 110.94%. MSCI’s revenue was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.86 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 45.63%.

MSCI announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.