MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Receives $631.83 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $634.58.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays upped their target price on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday.

Insider Activity

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. LRI Investments LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 120.0% during the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of MSCI opened at $625.10 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $599.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $553.33. The company has a market cap of $48.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.04, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.10. MSCI has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $642.45.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

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

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.