MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Given New $600.00 Price Target at Barclays

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its price target decreased by Barclays from $700.00 to $600.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on MSCI. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of MSCI from a hold rating to a buy rating and cut their target price for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $671.00 to $615.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of MSCI from a neutral rating to a sell rating and cut their target price for the company from $620.00 to $470.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a market perform rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $562.87.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $477.78 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $541.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $537.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.06. MSCI has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. MSCI had a net margin of 44.55% and a negative return on equity of 121.86%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.14 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 14.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 13,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at $152,579,015.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 13,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at $152,579,015.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit bought 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the acquisition, 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. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MSCI

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in MSCI in the first quarter valued at $26,000. Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new stake in MSCI in the third quarter valued at $26,000. ORG Partners LLC increased its stake in MSCI by 5,600.0% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 57 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Headinvest LLC bought a new stake in MSCI in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, American National Bank increased its stake in MSCI by 1,300.0% in the fourth quarter. American National Bank now owns 70 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

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.