MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Raises Dividend to $1.80 Per Share

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.80 per share by the technology company on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60.

MSCI has raised its dividend by an average of 20.7% per year over the last three years. MSCI has a payout ratio of 33.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect MSCI to earn $16.93 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.8%.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock traded down $2.69 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $590.36. The company had a trading volume of 338,972 shares, compared to its average volume of 457,039. MSCI has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $642.45. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $606.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $581.51. The stock has a market cap of $46.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.76, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.68 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 14.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price objective on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $649.23.

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.