MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Earns Outperform Rating from Analysts at Evercore ISI

Investment analysts at Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) in a report released on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target on the technology company’s stock. Evercore ISI’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 19.83% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Argus lifted their target price on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised MSCI to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $598.07.

MSCI Stock Down 1.2 %

NYSE MSCI opened at $575.83 on Wednesday. MSCI has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $617.39. The company has a market cap of $45.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s fifty day moving average is $557.49 and its 200 day moving average is $522.18.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. The company had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $696.41 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.26 EPS. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 14.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 74.9% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $701,522,000 after buying an additional 623,712 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 129.4% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $352,153,000 after buying an additional 412,389 shares in the last quarter. Findlay Park Partners LLP bought a new stake in MSCI in the 1st quarter valued at about $114,836,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at about $91,748,000. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its position in MSCI by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,725,215 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $976,009,000 after buying an additional 151,108 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About MSCI

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.