MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Receives $631.83 Average Target Price from Analysts

Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $634.58.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MSCI. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group decreased their price target on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,192,364 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,860,925,000 after purchasing an additional 11,351 shares in the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC raised its position in MSCI by 16.9% in the 3rd quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,279,904,000 after buying an additional 318,214 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in MSCI by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,862,362 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,082,594,000 after buying an additional 13,691 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in MSCI by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $925,531,000 after acquiring an additional 198,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $870,627,000 after acquiring an additional 37,340 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MSCI Trading Down 1.7 %

MSCI stock opened at $625.10 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $599.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $555.11. MSCI has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $48.99 billion, a PE ratio of 41.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.10.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.45 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that MSCI will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.02%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

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.