MSCI Inc. (MSCI) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.80 on May 30th

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 23rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of 1.80 per share by the technology company on Friday, May 30th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th.

MSCI has raised its dividend by an average of 20.7% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. MSCI has a payout ratio of 38.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect MSCI to earn $19.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $7.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.8%.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $530.13 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $555.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $584.22. MSCI has a fifty-two week low of $458.69 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $41.17 billion, a PE ratio of 37.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. The firm had revenue of $745.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $746.45 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MSCI will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total value of $2,621,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 294,787 shares in the company, valued at $154,542,084.75. This trade represents a 1.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 5,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America began coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of MSCI from $680.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $645.36.

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.