MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Price Target Raised to $680.00

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its price objective increased by Rothschild & Co Redburn from $670.00 to $680.00 in a research report report published on Monday morning.

MSCI has been the topic of a number of other reports. Evercore set a $722.00 target price on MSCI and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on MSCI from $662.00 to $671.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on MSCI from $685.00 to $710.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. Bank of America raised their price objective on MSCI from $715.00 to $730.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, William Blair set a $680.00 price objective on MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $682.12.

MSCI Trading Up 0.4%

MSCI opened at $604.38 on Monday. MSCI has a twelve month low of $501.08 and a twelve month high of $644.77. The firm has a market cap of $43.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.99, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $564.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $573.16.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 20th. The technology company reported $5.11 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 net margin of 40.31% and a negative return on equity of 50.69%. The firm’s revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $4.47 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that MSCI will post 19.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 27th. Investors of record on Friday, November 13th will be paid a dividend of $2.05 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 13th. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.41%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Andrew C. Wiechmann sold 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.00, for a total transaction of $256,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 21,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,337,080. The trade was a 2.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, General Counsel Robert J. Gutowski sold 2,381 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 22nd. The stock was 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 directly owned 14,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,796,100.64. This trade represents a 14.44% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 3.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 280,912 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $151,401,000 after acquiring an additional 5,469 shares during the period. Andra AP fonden increased its stake 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 valued at $8,669,000 after acquiring an additional 12,800 shares during the period. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,069,000. Corient Private Wealth LP acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $8,644,000. Finally, Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc bought a new stake in MSCI during the second quarter worth approximately $8,118,000. Institutional investors 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.