Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms Outperform Rating for MSCI (NYSE:MSCI)

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $675.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price suggests a potential upside of 14.14% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Barclays cut their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Redburn Atlantic raised 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. Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of MSCI stock traded down $1.67 during trading on Thursday, reaching $591.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 113,827 shares, compared to its average volume of 447,601. MSCI has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $606.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $581.51. The company has a market cap of $46.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.68 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 14.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MSCI

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth $870,000. Creative Planning raised its holdings in MSCI by 31.7% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 9,591 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,620,000 after acquiring an additional 2,311 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 40.3% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 8,466 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,079,000 after purchasing an additional 2,430 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 511.9% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,888 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,391,000 after purchasing an additional 2,416 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 15.3% during the 2nd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 512 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $247,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

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.