Moran Wealth Management LLC Grows Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Moran Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,123 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 220 shares during the quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $11,730,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI in the second quarter worth about $26,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in MSCI during the first quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in MSCI during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on MSCI. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE:MSCI traded down $14.61 on Wednesday, hitting $582.52. 134,940 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 540,717. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $631.70. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $585.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $540.12. The company has a market cap of $45.65 billion, a PE ratio of 39.19, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.10%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 42.02%.

MSCI 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.