MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Short Interest Down 16.0% in November

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

MSCI Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of MSCI opened at $625.10 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $599.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $555.11. MSCI has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $642.45. The firm has a market cap of $48.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.04, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.10.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The business 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 42.02%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 47.5% during the 3rd quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 975 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $568,000 after acquiring an additional 314 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 76.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,209 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,117,000 after acquiring an additional 5,283 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 26.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 919 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $536,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 66.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 6,412 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,780,000 after acquiring an additional 2,551 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hohimer Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hohimer Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,539 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $897,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MSCI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. 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. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays lifted their price target on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $634.58.

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.