MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Price Target Raised to $760.00

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its target price increased by Barclays from $735.00 to $760.00 in a report published on Monday,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on MSCI. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $671.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. Evercore set a $722.00 price target on shares of MSCI and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. UBS Group set a $615.00 price objective on MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on MSCI from $685.00 to $720.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on MSCI from $685.00 to $710.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $683.69.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $674.44 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.70, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $572.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $574.41. MSCI has a 12 month low of $501.08 and a 12 month high of $677.62.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 20th. The technology company reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.03 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $892.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $887.83 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 50.69% and a net margin of 40.31%. The business’s revenue was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.47 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 19.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be issued a $2.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 13th. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Andrew Wiechmann sold 450 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.00, for a total value of $256,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 21,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,337,080. The trade was a 2.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, General Counsel Robert Gutowski sold 2,381 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $623.66, for a total transaction of $1,484,934.46. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 14,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,796,100.64. This trade represents a 14.44% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 3.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in MSCI by 2.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 280,912 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $151,401,000 after buying an additional 5,469 shares during the period. Andra AP fonden increased its position in shares of MSCI by 477.6% during the second quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 15,480 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,669,000 after acquiring an additional 12,800 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,069,000. Corient Private Wealth LP acquired a new stake in MSCI in the second quarter valued at $8,644,000. Finally, Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth about $8,118,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) is a global provider of investment decision-support tools and services for institutional investors, asset managers, banks and other financial institutions. The company is best known for developing equity, fixed-income and multi-asset indexes used to benchmark portfolios and support the creation of investment products such as exchange-traded funds.

In addition to its indexes, MSCI provides portfolio analytics, risk-management and performance-attribution tools, as well as research and data covering environmental, social and governance factors, climate risk and sustainable investing.