MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $634.58.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MSCI shares. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Barclays lifted their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI in the second quarter valued at $26,000. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. LRI Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 120.0% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in MSCI in the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $611.63 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $600.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $556.84. The company has a market cap of $47.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.10. MSCI has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.45 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that MSCI will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.05%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 42.02%.

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.