Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Raises Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 52.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,085 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 373 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in MSCI were worth $632,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in MSCI by 2.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $870,627,000 after purchasing an additional 37,340 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,047,960 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $504,855,000 after buying an additional 13,620 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in MSCI by 129.4% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $352,153,000 after acquiring an additional 412,389 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in MSCI by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 637,381 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $307,058,000 after acquiring an additional 25,497 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in MSCI by 18.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 581,558 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $325,936,000 after acquiring an additional 92,118 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MSCI. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Argus upped their price target on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Performance

NYSE:MSCI opened at $589.25 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $631.70. The stock has a market cap of $46.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $586.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $541.49.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.45 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

MSCI 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.