Morgan Stanley Lowers MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Price Target to $615.00

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its price target reduced by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $671.00 to $615.00 in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 37.86% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $620.00 to $470.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com cut MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Friday, April 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $586.00.

MSCI Trading Down 13.4 %

Shares of MSCI opened at $446.09 on Wednesday. MSCI has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $617.39. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $547.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $539.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.46 by $0.06. MSCI had a net margin of 45.42% and a negative return on equity of 111.17%. The company had revenue of $680.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.14 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that MSCI will post 14.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bamco Inc. NY raised its holdings in MSCI by 0.7% in the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,260,105 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,159,615,000 after purchasing an additional 15,184 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in MSCI by 1.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,893,728 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $971,634,000 after acquiring an additional 30,528 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,725,215 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $976,009,000 after acquiring an additional 151,108 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of MSCI by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,460,634 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $749,422,000 after acquiring an additional 179,508 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in MSCI by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,038,761 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $587,575,000 after buying an additional 44,234 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is 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.