Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for MSCI (NYSE:MSCI)

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

MSCI has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Edward Jones initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. They issued a buy rating for the company. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $659.00 to $648.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of MSCI from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $544.00 to $617.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $581.57.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $526.62 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $41.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.57, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $559.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $539.32. MSCI has a 1 year low of $451.55 and a 1 year high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The technology company reported $3.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.29 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $690.11 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $662.64 million. MSCI had a net margin of 45.42% and a negative return on equity of 111.17%. MSCI’s revenue was up 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.84 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in MSCI by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,683,338 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,911,730,000 after acquiring an additional 85,922 shares during the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY lifted its position in shares of MSCI by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,260,105 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,159,615,000 after buying an additional 15,184 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,893,728 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $971,634,000 after buying an additional 30,528 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,725,215 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $976,009,000 after buying an additional 151,108 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,637,256 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $914,510,000 after buying an additional 35,746 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.