Financial Counselors Inc. Buys 55 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Financial Counselors Inc. grew its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 0.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,241 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $5,387,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp raised its holdings in MSCI by 35.1% during the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on MSCI. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $631.83.

MSCI Stock Up 0.5 %

MSCI opened at $604.96 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $589.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $544.93. The company has a market cap of $47.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 52-week low of $439.95 and a 52-week high of $631.70.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.45 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.02%.

MSCI 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.