MSCI's (MSCI) Buy (B-) Rating Reaffirmed at Weiss Ratings

Key Points

• Weiss Ratings reaffirmed MSCI's stock rating as "buy (B-)", indicating continued confidence in the company's performance.
• Multiple brokerages have raised their price targets for MSCI, with UBS setting it at $700, demonstrating a positive outlook among analysts.
• MSCI's recent earnings report revealed a revenue increase of 9.1% year-over-year, reporting $772.68 million and beating earnings expectations.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy (b-)" rating reissued by research analysts at Weiss Ratings in a research report issued on Wednesday,Weiss Ratings reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on MSCI. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of MSCI to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of MSCI from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $650.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $625.00 to $655.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $649.70.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI traded down $4.93 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $562.01. The company's stock had a trading volume of 44,312 shares, compared to its average volume of 610,851. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.22, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.33. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $564.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $559.55. MSCI has a fifty-two week low of $486.73 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $772.68 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $763.06 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.13% and a net margin of 39.46%.The firm's revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.64 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 84 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $548.69 per share, with a total value of $46,089.96. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $702,296,314.19. This trade represents a 0.01% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have purchased a total of 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its holdings in MSCI by 23.2% during the 1st quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 812 shares of the technology company's stock worth $459,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 336.4% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 96 shares of the technology company's stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in MSCI by 10.0% during the 2nd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 8,882 shares of the technology company's stock worth $5,123,000 after acquiring an additional 809 shares during the period. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC grew its holdings in MSCI by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 524 shares of the technology company's stock worth $296,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Ascent Group LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI during the 1st quarter worth $288,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company's stock.

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.

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