MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Short Interest Down 13.0% in June

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,140,000 shares, a decrease of 13.0% from the May 31st total of 1,310,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 696,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.6 days. Approximately 1.5% of the company’s stock are sold short.

MSCI Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $481.75 on Friday. MSCI has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $617.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.16 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $485.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $531.03.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $680.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. MSCI had a net margin of 44.55% and a negative return on equity of 121.86%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.14 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.66 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $133,705,767.58. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other MSCI news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.69, for a total transaction of $4,245,210.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,831 shares in the company, valued at $6,052,254.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $459.41 per share, with a total value of $3,445,575.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $133,705,767.58. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Stifel Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 19.5% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 14,410 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,402,000 after buying an additional 2,350 shares in the last quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the third quarter valued at approximately $246,000. Shelton Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 745.1% in the third quarter. Shelton Capital Management now owns 4,310 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,211,000 after purchasing an additional 3,800 shares in the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.1% in the third quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,315 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,832,000 after purchasing an additional 274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EULAV Asset Management increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 290.0% in the third quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 74,100 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,019,000 after purchasing an additional 55,100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $671.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $526.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $570.53.

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.