Advisors Asset Management Inc. Has $1.98 Million Stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 66.4% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,401 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,357 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,983,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. NS Partners Ltd increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.1% in the third quarter. NS Partners Ltd now owns 74,721 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $43,557,000 after acquiring an additional 1,506 shares in the last quarter. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 15.6% in the third quarter. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC now owns 3,834 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,235,000 after acquiring an additional 516 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the third quarter worth about $100,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.3% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 17,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,221,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 27.8% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 36,002 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $20,987,000 after acquiring an additional 7,830 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Redburn Atlantic upgraded MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays increased their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price objective for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Up 1.4 %

MSCI stock opened at $589.57 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $586.39 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $542.48. The company has a market cap of $46.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $631.70.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. The company had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.09%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 42.02%.

MSCI 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.