Bank of America Initiates Coverage on MSCI (NYSE:MSCI)

Bank of America started coverage on shares of MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) in a report published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. The firm issued a neutral rating and a $585.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of MSCI from $623.00 to $532.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $646.58.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI opened at $542.26 on Thursday. MSCI has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The stock has a market cap of $42.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $562.15 and its 200 day moving average is $586.71.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.68 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that MSCI will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This is a boost from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.33%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 51.21%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $574.51 per share, for a total transaction of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 294,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $154,542,084.75. The trade was a 1.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,897,456 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,136,563,000 after buying an additional 35,094 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in MSCI by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,613,005 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $967,820,000 after acquiring an additional 119,471 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp increased its position in shares of MSCI by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,148,615 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $689,180,000 after acquiring an additional 49,679 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $609,937,000. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 853,452 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $512,079,000 after purchasing an additional 25,325 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.