MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Rating Increased to Hold at Wells Fargo & Company

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wells Fargo & Company to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday, Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on MSCI. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America raised shares of MSCI from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $425.00 to $525.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $584.79.

MSCI Stock Up 1.5 %

MSCI opened at $554.41 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $506.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $523.20. MSCI has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $617.39. The company has a market cap of $43.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.84, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.10.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $696.41 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.26 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 14.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in MSCI during the first quarter worth approximately $34,000. American National Bank grew its position in MSCI by 1,300.0% in the fourth quarter. American National Bank now owns 70 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the second quarter valued at $40,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

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.