Fiera Capital Corp Boosts Stake in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Fiera Capital Corp grew its position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 969,850 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 20,682 shares during the quarter. MSCI accounts for 1.9% of Fiera Capital Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Fiera Capital Corp’s holdings in MSCI were worth $559,351,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in MSCI by 136.4% during the first quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 52 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Steph & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 66 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Banque Transatlantique SA raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 355.6% during the 1st quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA now owns 82 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2,666.7% in the 1st quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 83 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $655.90.

MSCI Trading Down 0.7%

MSCI stock opened at $580.36 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $563.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $562.69. MSCI Inc has a 1-year low of $486.73 and a 1-year high of $642.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.37 by $0.10. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 110.94% and a net margin of 40.03%.The firm had revenue of $793.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $794.87 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.86 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Tuesday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to purchase up to 7.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 45.63%.

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.