MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Rating Reiterated by Royal Bank of Canada

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $638.00 price target on the technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target suggests a potential upside of 30.97% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Redburn Atlantic raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, May 13th. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group reduced their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on MSCI from $615.00 to $526.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $570.53.

MSCI Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $487.14 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $486.73 and its 200-day moving average is $531.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.59 billion, a PE ratio of 33.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.08. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 121.86% and a net margin of 44.55%. The firm had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.14 earnings per share. MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.66 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, COO Cd Baer Pettit acquired 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 291,038 shares in the company, valued at $133,705,767.58. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer now owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $133,705,767.58. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 13,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $465.92 per share, with a total value of $6,056,960.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $152,579,015.68. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of MSCI

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI in the first quarter valued at $26,000. Headinvest LLC bought a new stake in MSCI during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in MSCI during the first quarter valued at $34,000. American National Bank boosted its position in MSCI by 1,300.0% during the fourth quarter. American National Bank now owns 70 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First United Bank & Trust bought a new stake in MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at $48,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.