MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Earns "Outperform" Rating from Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) in a research report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $638.00 price objective on the technology company's stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays raised their target price on MSCI from $600.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on MSCI from $544.00 to $617.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James restated a market perform rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. They issued a peer perform rating for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $581.57.

MSCI Trading Down 1.5 %

NYSE MSCI traded down $7.87 on Friday, hitting $526.62. The company's stock had a trading volume of 386,164 shares, compared to its average volume of 444,810. MSCI has a 52-week low of $451.55 and a 52-week high of $617.39. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $560.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $538.90. The firm has a market cap of $41.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.35, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.06.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.29 by $0.39. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 111.17% and a net margin of 45.42%. The business had revenue of $690.11 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $662.64 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.84 EPS. The business's revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that MSCI will post 14.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This is a positive change from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.38. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.44%.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 3rd quarter worth $434,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,340 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,324,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 218,623 shares of the technology company's stock worth $124,786,000 after acquiring an additional 35,277 shares during the period. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 3.0% in the third quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 430,676 shares of the technology company's stock worth $220,971,000 after acquiring an additional 12,495 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 143,742 shares of the technology company's stock worth $81,308,000 after acquiring an additional 11,704 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.