MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $649.23.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 30.0% during the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $329,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 30.9% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,991,000 after buying an additional 41,346 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $312,574,000 after purchasing an additional 23,050 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 339.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,642,000 after purchasing an additional 20,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 176.2% during the 3rd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $921,000 after purchasing an additional 1,008 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $578.71 on Monday. MSCI has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $596.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $588.40. The company has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a PE ratio of 41.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.68 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that MSCI will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $1.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 51.21%.

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.