Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC Acquires 130 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 30.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 564 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $329,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth about $91,748,000. Grove Bank & Trust grew its stake in MSCI by 52.4% in the third quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,779 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter worth approximately $778,000. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 207.9% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 2,956 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 455.8% in the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 5,614 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,146,000 after buying an additional 4,604 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSCI. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 target price on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock opened at $593.86 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $631.70. The company has a market capitalization of $46.54 billion, a PE ratio of 38.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $583.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $537.35.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.45 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.08%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

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.