Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases 22 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 3.1% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 732 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $427,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in MSCI by 388.9% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 176 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $99,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 52.9% during the 1st quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 1,159 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $650,000 after purchasing an additional 401 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 7,086 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,971,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at about $245,000. Finally, Pitcairn Co. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $533,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 target price on the stock. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, 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. Seven equities research 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 currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $582.00 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $585.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $540.42. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $631.70. The firm has a market cap of $45.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.45 earnings per share. MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.10%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.02%.

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.