The Goldman Sachs Group Trims MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Target Price to $526.00

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its price target lowered by The Goldman Sachs Group from $615.00 to $526.00 in a research note released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the technology company’s stock.

MSCI has been the topic of several other research reports. Bank of America cut their target price on MSCI from $530.00 to $425.00 and set an underperform rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered MSCI from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays raised their target price on MSCI from $600.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on MSCI in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a peer perform rating on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised MSCI from a hold rating to a buy rating and cut their price target for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $562.87.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $477.78 on Wednesday. The firm 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. The business’s 50-day moving average is $541.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $537.78. MSCI has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $617.39.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 13,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at $152,579,015.68. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 13,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at $152,579,015.68. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief operating officer now owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $133,705,767.58. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in MSCI by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 165 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $93,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Advisors LLC raised its holdings in MSCI by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Advisors LLC now owns 664 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $376,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC raised its holdings in MSCI by 23.5% during the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 100 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Balentine LLC raised its holdings in MSCI by 3.6% during the third quarter. Balentine LLC now owns 572 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $293,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in MSCI by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,080 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,177,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.