Palumbo Wealth Management LLC Acquires 82 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Palumbo Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 2.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,020 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 82 shares during the quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,760,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the first quarter worth about $34,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, American National Bank & Trust bought a new position in MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Redburn Atlantic upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $624.23.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock traded up $4.26 on Thursday, reaching $573.35. 47,079 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 538,487. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $579.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $529.34. The company has a market cap of $45.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $631.70.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.45 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.83 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.12%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.87%.

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.