MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Short Interest Update

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) was the target of a large decrease in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 728,700 shares, a decrease of 16.0% from the November 15th total of 867,100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 460,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.6 days. Currently, 1.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,192,364 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,860,925,000 after buying an additional 11,351 shares in the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MSCI by 16.9% in the 3rd quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,195,639 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,279,904,000 after acquiring an additional 318,214 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in MSCI by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,862,362 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,082,594,000 after acquiring an additional 13,691 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in MSCI by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,587,723 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $925,531,000 after purchasing an additional 198,666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in MSCI by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $870,627,000 after purchasing an additional 37,340 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on MSCI. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $634.58.

MSCI Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $618.61 on Tuesday. MSCI has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.62, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $600.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $556.02.

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

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 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.