MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Price Target Raised to $600.00 at Argus

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its price objective upped by stock analysts at Argus from $520.00 to $600.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. Argus’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 11.00% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Bank of America raised MSCI from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $425.00 to $525.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday. Redburn Atlantic raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, May 13th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on MSCI from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.21.

MSCI Stock Up 0.4 %

MSCI stock traded up $2.35 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $540.56. The stock had a trading volume of 316,610 shares, compared to its average volume of 589,782. MSCI has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $617.39. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $494.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $524.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.52 billion, a PE ratio of 36.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.10.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.26 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.74 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.69, for a total value of $4,245,210.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 12,831 shares in the company, valued at $6,052,254.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MSCI

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at $496,541,000. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its holdings in MSCI by 803.9% in the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 587,978 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $331,906,000 after buying an additional 522,926 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in MSCI by 129.4% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $352,153,000 after buying an additional 412,389 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its holdings in MSCI by 3,600.0% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 253,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $143,469,000 after buying an additional 246,781 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Findlay Park Partners LLP bought a new stake in MSCI in the 1st quarter worth about $114,836,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.