Man Group plc Makes New Investment in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Man Group plc purchased a new position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 44,623 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,991,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd acquired a new position in MSCI during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new position in MSCI during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Compound Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in MSCI during the second quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, SHP Wealth Management bought a new position in MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on MSCI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $742.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. UBS Group set a $615.00 price objective on MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Barclays raised their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $735.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Evercore set a $722.00 target price on MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial upped their target price on MSCI from $730.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $709.50.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $564.39 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $41.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.23. MSCI Inc has a fifty-two week low of $501.08 and a fifty-two week high of $644.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $579.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $573.07.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $4.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.99 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $867.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $870.71 million. MSCI had a net margin of 40.74% and a negative return on equity of 55.19%. The firm’s revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.17 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 19.61 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be given a dividend of $2.05 per share. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 44.86%.

MSCI 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.