MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Sold by Federated Hermes Inc.

Federated Hermes Inc. reduced its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 27.0% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 88,682 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 32,881 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $42,723,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in shares of MSCI by 28.1% during the second quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 1,855 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $894,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. grew its position in MSCI by 22.2% in the 2nd quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 1,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $940,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.3% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,047,960 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $504,855,000 after purchasing an additional 13,620 shares during the period. Pier Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.4% during the second quarter. Pier Capital LLC now owns 2,294 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,105,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Angeles Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $214,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSCI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays raised their target price on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Argus raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $591.00.

MSCI Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $561.93 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $617.39. The company has a market cap of $44.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $542.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $521.84.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.26 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

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.