Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Makes New Investment in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 11,400 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,384,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,062,626,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in MSCI by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,320,761 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,884,233,000 after buying an additional 39,450 shares during the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY grew its holdings in MSCI by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,755,747 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,581,055,000 after buying an additional 361,630 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in MSCI by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,467,556 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,415,713,000 after buying an additional 52,242 shares during the period. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 13.2% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,446,291 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $829,781,000 after buying an additional 168,405 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MSCI. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $700.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $760.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $715.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $690.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial increased their price target on shares of MSCI from $730.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $709.50.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $564.39 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $41.03 billion, a PE ratio of 30.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.23. MSCI Inc has a one year low of $501.08 and a one year high of $644.77. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $579.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $573.07.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $4.94 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.99 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $867.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $870.71 million. MSCI had a net margin of 40.74% and a negative return on equity of 55.19%. The business’s revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.17 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 19.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be given a $2.05 dividend. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.86%.

MSCI Profile

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.