Point72 Europe London LLP Takes Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Point72 Europe London LLP purchased a new position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 8,500 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,955,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of MSCI by 85.4% in the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 799 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $410,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc grew its position in MSCI by 3.0% in the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 7,890 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,422,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Burney Co. raised its stake in MSCI by 12.8% during the first quarter. Burney Co. now owns 936 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $525,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 172.8% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 9,083 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,091,000 after acquiring an additional 5,754 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 207.9% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 2,956 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,996 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $608.75 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $591.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $545.78. 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 $47.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.45 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.05%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI initiated coverage on MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price objective for the company. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $631.83.

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.