NewEdge Advisors LLC Has $4.08 Million Stock Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 40.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,466 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,430 shares during the quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $4,079,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,719,381 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,886,777,000 after purchasing an additional 36,043 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,734,519 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $972,111,000 after purchasing an additional 9,304 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 74.9% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $701,522,000 after purchasing an additional 623,712 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 1,323,058 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $741,508,000 after purchasing an additional 23,217 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,047,960 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $504,855,000 after purchasing an additional 13,620 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MSCI shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays increased their price target on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $598.07.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $590.45 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.30, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $558.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $522.65.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.26 EPS. Research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.79 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.69%.

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.