MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Price Target Increased to $650.00 by Analysts at Barclays

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its target price increased by Barclays from $600.00 to $650.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on MSCI. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America upgraded MSCI from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and raised their price objective for the company from $425.00 to $525.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Oppenheimer restated a market perform rating on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on MSCI in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. They issued a peer perform rating for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $591.21.

MSCI Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $540.55 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $42.51 billion, a PE ratio of 36.90, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.10. MSCI has a 1-year low of $439.95 and a 1-year high of $617.39. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $495.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $524.55.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.26 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that MSCI will post 14.76 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.69%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MSCI news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.69, for a total transaction of $4,245,210.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,831 shares in the company, valued at $6,052,254.39. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in MSCI by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,719,381 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,886,777,000 after acquiring an additional 36,043 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of MSCI by 0.5% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,734,519 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $972,111,000 after buying an additional 9,304 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP raised its position in shares of MSCI by 1.8% in the first quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 1,323,058 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $741,508,000 after buying an additional 23,217 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of MSCI by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,038,761 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $587,575,000 after buying an additional 44,234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $496,541,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.