Empowered Funds LLC Takes $4.75 Million Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 8,491 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,755,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth about $3,062,626,000. Bamco Inc. NY purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth about $1,798,710,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in MSCI in the 4th quarter valued at about $528,560,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at about $480,613,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $301,493,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting MSCI

Here are the key news stories impacting MSCI this week:

• Positive Sentiment: MSCI implemented its periodic Saudi-market index changes and its August review across India, generating substantial passive-fund trading. India’s closing-auction session recorded roughly ₹39,718 crore in turnover, or about 22% of total cash-market activity, highlighting the scale and influence of MSCI’s benchmarks. MSCI implements periodic changes in Saudi market today
• Positive Sentiment: Index additions including Sandisk, Groww, Lenskart, Laurus Labs and Adani Energy are expected to attract passive inflows, while index changes to other constituents drove billions of dollars in repositioning. The activity underscores MSCI’s pricing power and strategic importance to institutional investors. Sandisk to join the MSCI World Index
• Neutral Sentiment: India’s new closing-auction mechanism handled its first major MSCI rebalance, with approximately $4 billion of flows and sharp late-session swings. The successful processing of large institutional orders supports confidence in MSCI’s benchmark ecosystem, but the event primarily affects market infrastructure and constituent stocks rather than MSCI’s near-term revenue. MSCI rebalance to test India’s new closing auction
• Negative Sentiment: Broader risk sentiment remained cautious after Asian equities and MSCI’s Asia-Pacific gauge declined amid a more hawkish interest-rate outlook. This may weigh on valuation-sensitive financial-data and index businesses, despite MSCI’s recurring-revenue model. Asian stocks drop on hawkish outlook

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on MSCI shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on MSCI from $715.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Raymond James Financial boosted their target price on MSCI from $730.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on MSCI in a research note on Friday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $760.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of MSCI from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, UBS Group set a $615.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and eleven have issued a Buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $709.50.

MSCI Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $572.02 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $41.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.29, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.23. MSCI Inc has a 52 week low of $501.08 and a 52 week high of $644.77. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $579.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $573.62.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $4.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.99 by ($0.05). MSCI had a negative return on equity of 55.19% and a net margin of 40.74%.The business had revenue of $867.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $870.71 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.17 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 19.61 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th were paid a $2.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 14th. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 44.86%.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.