MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Acquired by NBC Securities Inc.

NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 50.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 953 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the quarter. NBC Securities Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $555,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 74.9% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,456,194 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $701,522,000 after buying an additional 623,712 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its position in MSCI by 129.4% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $352,153,000 after acquiring an additional 412,389 shares in the last quarter. Findlay Park Partners LLP purchased a new stake in MSCI during the first quarter worth about $114,836,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the second quarter valued at approximately $91,748,000. Finally, Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the first quarter valued at approximately $75,957,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Argus lifted their target price on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $614.14.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI opened at $605.81 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a one year low of $439.95 and a one year high of $617.39. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $572.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $526.20.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $696.41 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.26 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 43.69%.

MSCI Company 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.