MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.80

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of 1.80 per share by the technology company on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60.

MSCI has raised its dividend payment by an average of 20.7% per year over the last three years. MSCI has a dividend payout ratio of 33.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect MSCI to earn $16.93 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.8%.

MSCI Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of MSCI stock traded down $2.69 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $590.36. 499,827 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 468,670. MSCI has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $642.45. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $606.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $581.51. The company has a market cap of $46.27 billion, a PE ratio of 38.76, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.68 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that MSCI will post 14.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at MSCI

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. UBS Group lowered their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Evercore ISI started coverage on MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

MSCI Company Profile

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.