MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Raises Dividend to $1.80 Per Share

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.80 per share by the technology company on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60.

MSCI has raised its dividend payment by an average of 20.7% annually over the last three years. MSCI has a payout ratio of 33.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect MSCI to earn $16.93 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.8%.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI traded down $2.69 during trading on Thursday, hitting $590.36. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 499,827 shares, compared to its average volume of 468,670. MSCI has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The company has a market capitalization of $46.27 billion, a PE ratio of 38.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $606.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $581.51.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.68 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $612.80 per share, for a total transaction of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.