MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Raises Dividend to $1.80 Per Share

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of 1.80 per share by the technology company on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60.

MSCI has increased its dividend by an average of 20.7% per year over the last three years. MSCI has a payout ratio of 33.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect MSCI to earn $16.93 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.8%.

MSCI Trading Down 0.5 %

MSCI stock traded down $2.69 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $590.36. The company had a trading volume of 338,972 shares, compared to its average volume of 457,039. The company has a 50 day moving average of $606.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $581.51. The company has a market capitalization of $46.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.76, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.68 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 14.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on MSCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price 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. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI began coverage on MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.23.

MSCI Company 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.