MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Acquired by Cerity Partners LLC

Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 31.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,329 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,133 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $10,102,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 30.0% during the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $329,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $91,748,000. Grove Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 52.4% in the third quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,779 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,000 after acquiring an additional 1,299 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the first quarter valued at approximately $778,000. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC raised its holdings in MSCI by 207.9% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 2,956 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,996 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MSCI. 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 research note on Friday, October 11th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 target price for the company. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $631.83.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $601.96 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $631.70. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $587.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $544.08.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The company had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.45 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.06%. MSCI’s payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

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.