MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Price Target Increased to $700.00 by Analysts at Barclays

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its price target lifted by Barclays from $650.00 to $700.00 in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on MSCI. Argus boosted their price target on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $588.36.

MSCI Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $561.93 on Friday. MSCI has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $617.39. The company has a market capitalization of $44.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.36, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $542.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $522.09.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The business had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in MSCI in the first quarter valued at $26,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, American National Bank grew its stake in MSCI by 1,300.0% during the fourth quarter. American National Bank now owns 70 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is 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.