Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 3,409 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 35.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 13,130 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,409 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $7,653,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 30.0% in the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $329,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the second quarter valued at about $91,748,000. Grove Bank & Trust lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 52.4% in the third quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,779 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,000 after buying an additional 1,299 shares during the period. LBP AM SA bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the first quarter valued at about $778,000. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 207.9% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 2,956 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,657,000 after buying an additional 1,996 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Barclays increased 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. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $631.83.

MSCI Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE MSCI opened at $592.70 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $46.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.92, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50 day moving average of $586.91 and a 200-day moving average of $543.26. MSCI Inc. has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.45 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

MSCI 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.