MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Given New $425.00 Price Target at Bank of America

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its price objective reduced by Bank of America from $530.00 to $425.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an underperform rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on MSCI. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on MSCI in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. They issued a peer perform rating for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded MSCI from a hold rating to a buy rating and lowered their price target for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a report on Wednesday. Barclays boosted their price objective on MSCI from $600.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on MSCI from $544.00 to $617.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $562.87.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $464.81 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $36.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.73, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.06. MSCI has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $617.39. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $545.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $538.56.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.08. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 111.33% and a net margin of 44.55%. The company had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.14 EPS. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that MSCI will post 14.81 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.38%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 43.69%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 105.1% during the 3rd quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 80 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 561 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $288,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 348.7% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 341 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $175,000 after buying an additional 265 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 669 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $343,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in MSCI by 45.9% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 13,823 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,092,000 after purchasing an additional 4,346 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.