Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Stock Price

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its price objective hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $662.00 to $695.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Barclays raised their price target on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $634.58.

MSCI Stock Up 1.0 %

MSCI stock opened at $635.90 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $599.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $553.33. The stock has a market cap of $49.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.10. MSCI has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.45 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.98 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were given a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of MSCI by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,192,364 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,860,925,000 after purchasing an additional 11,351 shares during the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,279,904,000 after purchasing an additional 318,214 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,862,362 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,082,594,000 after purchasing an additional 13,691 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of MSCI by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $925,531,000 after purchasing an additional 198,666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of MSCI by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $870,627,000 after purchasing an additional 37,340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

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.