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

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $526.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $570.53.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. SRN Advisors LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. SRN Advisors LLC now owns 2,495 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,398,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. EULAV Asset Management increased its stake in MSCI by 58.1% in the 1st quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 169,603 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $95,054,000 after purchasing an additional 62,301 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 207.9% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 2,956 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,996 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in MSCI by 172.8% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 9,083 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,091,000 after purchasing an additional 5,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Burney Co. increased its stake in MSCI by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. Burney Co. now owns 936 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $525,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Down 1.0 %

MSCI opened at $481.75 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $485.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $531.03. The company has a market cap of $38.16 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $617.39.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.