Short Interest in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Grows By 33.5%

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,090,000 shares, a growth of 33.5% from the March 31st total of 816,300 shares. Currently, 1.4% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 546,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days.

MSCI Trading Up 2.9 %

MSCI stock opened at $477.78 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $541.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $537.90. MSCI has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $617.39. The company has a market capitalization of $37.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $680.00 million for 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.14 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that MSCI will post 14.59 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other MSCI news, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the acquisition, the chief operating officer now owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $133,705,767.58. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 327,479 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $152,579,015.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $133,705,767.58. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MSCI. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at $496,541,000. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its position in MSCI by 803.9% during the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 587,978 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $331,906,000 after acquiring an additional 522,926 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 59.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 762,080 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $391,008,000 after buying an additional 284,513 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its position in MSCI by 3,600.0% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 253,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $143,469,000 after buying an additional 246,781 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 32.5% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 959,894 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $492,502,000 after buying an additional 235,290 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on MSCI. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Friday, April 12th. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Friday, January 5th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on MSCI from $615.00 to $526.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $562.87.

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.