ABN Amro Investment Solutions Takes Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

ABN Amro Investment Solutions purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 4,360 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,515,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its position in MSCI by 136.4% during the first quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 52 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Steph & Co. bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 50.0% in the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 66 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 355.6% during the 1st quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA now owns 82 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 2,666.7% during the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 83 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $564.71 on Friday. MSCI Inc has a one year low of $486.73 and a one year high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $42.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $564.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $562.96.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.37 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $793.43 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $794.87 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 110.94% and a net margin of 40.03%.The business’s revenue was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.86 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 45.63%.

MSCI declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to reacquire up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. UBS Group lifted their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $655.90.

MSCI 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.