MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) PT Lowered to $600.00 at Barclays

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its price target cut by Barclays from $700.00 to $600.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

MSCI has been the topic of a number of other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $526.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered MSCI from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Bank of America lowered their price target on MSCI from $530.00 to $425.00 and set an underperform rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. 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 research note on Wednesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $562.87.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $477.78 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $541.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $537.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.06. MSCI has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 121.86% and a net margin of 44.55%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.14 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.34%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.69%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other MSCI news, COO Cd Baer Pettit bought 7,500 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $459.41 per share, with a total value of $3,445,575.00. Following the acquisition, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $133,705,767.58. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 13,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $465.92 per share, with a total value of $6,056,960.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $152,579,015.68. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit bought 7,500 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares in the company, valued at $133,705,767.58. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bamco Inc. NY lifted its holdings in MSCI by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,260,105 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,159,615,000 after buying an additional 15,184 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,893,728 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $971,634,000 after buying an additional 30,528 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in MSCI by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,725,215 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $976,009,000 after buying an additional 151,108 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in MSCI by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,460,634 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $749,422,000 after buying an additional 179,508 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,038,761 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $587,575,000 after buying an additional 44,234 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is 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.