Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms Outperform Rating for MSCI (NYSE:MSCI)

Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $675.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays decreased their target price 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America assumed coverage on MSCI in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 price target on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $643.92.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $543.35 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $42.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.65, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30. MSCI has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $560.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $586.17.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS 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 in the previous year, the business earned $3.68 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that MSCI will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 1.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $729,599,549.01. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MSCI

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