MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) have received an average rating of “Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $692.70.

MSCI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and issued a $715.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Evercore boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $690.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $730.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $719.00 to $727.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd.

MSCI Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $590.97 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $566.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $566.22. The stock has a market cap of $43.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.75, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.24. MSCI has a twelve month low of $501.08 and a twelve month high of $626.28.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The technology company reported $4.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $850.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $830.91 million. MSCI had a net margin of 40.74% and a negative return on equity of 65.48%. MSCI’s revenue was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.00 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that MSCI will post 19.62 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $2.05 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 46.83%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CFO Andrew C. Wiechmann sold 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $560.00, for a total transaction of $252,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,544 shares in the company, valued at $12,624,640. This represents a 1.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Alvise J. Munari sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $592.04, for a total transaction of $5,920,400.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 23,548 shares in the company, valued at $13,941,357.92. This trade represents a 29.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 3.76% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter worth approximately $528,560,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 499.3% during the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 874,882 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $496,417,000 after buying an additional 728,900 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 15.1% during the fourth quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,755,747 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,581,055,000 after buying an additional 361,630 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 91.8% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 691,554 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $392,395,000 after purchasing an additional 331,040 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in MSCI by 36.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,069,180 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $606,674,000 after purchasing an additional 282,859 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MSCI Company Profile

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.