MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their outperform rating on shares of MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $638.00 price target on the technology company’s stock.

MSCI has been the subject of a number of other reports. Bank of America raised shares of MSCI from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $425.00 to $525.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $485.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, May 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $526.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays dropped their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $600.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a market perform rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $570.53.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $486.81 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $486.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $531.54. MSCI has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $617.39. The company has a market capitalization of $38.57 billion, a PE ratio of 33.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 121.86% and a net margin of 44.55%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.14 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 14.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.69%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 13,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at approximately $152,579,015.68. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 13,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 327,479 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $152,579,015.68. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.69, for a total transaction of $4,245,210.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 12,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,052,254.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSCI. SRN Advisors LLC lifted its stake in MSCI by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. SRN Advisors LLC now owns 2,495 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,398,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. EULAV Asset Management lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 58.1% in the first quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 169,603 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $95,054,000 after purchasing an additional 62,301 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in MSCI by 207.9% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 2,956 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,996 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in MSCI by 172.8% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 9,083 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,091,000 after purchasing an additional 5,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Burney Co. lifted its position in MSCI by 12.8% during the 1st quarter. Burney Co. now owns 936 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $525,000 after buying an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.