MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Lifted to “Hold” at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) to a hold rating in a research report report published on Tuesday morning, Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on MSCI. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of MSCI from a hold rating to a buy rating and reduced their price target for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $485.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a market perform rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $584.79.

MSCI Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $563.02 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $507.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $523.48. The company has a market cap of $44.60 billion, a PE ratio of 38.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.10. MSCI has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.26 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that MSCI will post 14.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 13,659.5% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 10,182 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,759,000 after acquiring an additional 10,108 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 7,679 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,344,000 after acquiring an additional 761 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 765 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 26,388 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,926,000 after acquiring an additional 1,752 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TRUE Private Wealth Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 33.8% in the fourth quarter. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors now owns 741 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $419,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.