MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Down 7.3% - Time to Sell?

MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) fell 7.3% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $550.00 and last traded at $535.70. 472,930 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 8% from the average session volume of 513,164 shares. The stock had previously closed at $577.97.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $650.18.

MSCI Stock Up 2.5%

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $564.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $566.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.02, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.32.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.12 by $0.05. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.13% and a net margin of 39.46%. The company had revenue of $772.68 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $763.06 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.64 EPS. MSCI's revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. MSCI's payout ratio is 49.48%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In related news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total transaction of $2,762,950.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 289,787 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $160,133,398.33. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter worth about $609,937,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in MSCI by 16,353.6% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 587,557 shares of the technology company's stock worth $352,539,000 after buying an additional 583,986 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in MSCI by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company's stock worth $5,302,610,000 after acquiring an additional 518,833 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 355.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 660,690 shares of the technology company's stock worth $365,976,000 after acquiring an additional 515,713 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in MSCI by 61,179.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 505,557 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $285,892,000 after acquiring an additional 504,732 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company's stock.

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.