MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Short Interest Update

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 728,700 shares, a decline of 16.0% from the November 15th total of 867,100 shares. Currently, 1.0% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 460,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on MSCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. UBS Group lowered their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target for the company. Wolfe Research raised shares of MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MSCI has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MSCI

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. LRI Investments LLC boosted its stake in MSCI by 120.0% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth about $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the third quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in MSCI in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MSCI Trading Down 1.0 %

MSCI opened at $618.61 on Tuesday. MSCI has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $48.48 billion, a PE ratio of 40.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50 day moving average of $600.59 and a 200 day moving average of $556.02.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that MSCI will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.02%.

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.