MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $1.60

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 28th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of 1.60 per share by the technology company on Friday, November 29th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th.

MSCI has increased its dividend by an average of 23.7% per year over the last three years. MSCI has a dividend payout ratio of 37.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect MSCI to earn $16.85 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.0%.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI traded up $6.42 on Wednesday, hitting $585.35. 35,959 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 537,441. MSCI has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $631.70. The company has a market capitalization of $46.04 billion, a PE ratio of 38.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $579.80 and its 200 day moving average is $529.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.45 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 14.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MSCI. Barclays upped their target price on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target on the stock. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $615.23.

About MSCI

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.