MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Receives Outperform Rating from Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) in a report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $638.00 price target on the technology company’s stock.

MSCI has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Argus increased their target price on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target on the stock. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $624.23.

MSCI Stock Down 1.7 %

MSCI opened at $569.35 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $44.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $631.70. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $579.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $529.34.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. The company had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.45 earnings per share. MSCI’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 42.87%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MSCI

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 6.9% in the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 452 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $264,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 20,965 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $12,221,000 after purchasing an additional 1,220 shares during the period. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at about $258,000. ASB Consultores LLC bought a new position in MSCI during the third quarter worth about $258,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in MSCI by 10.9% during the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $957,000 after buying an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.