Metis Global Partners LLC Grows Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Metis Global Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,516 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $1,467,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in MSCI by 0.5% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,734,519 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $972,111,000 after buying an additional 9,304 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,493,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $870,627,000 after acquiring an additional 37,340 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,047,960 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $504,855,000 after acquiring an additional 13,620 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI by 129.4% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 730,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $352,153,000 after purchasing an additional 412,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in MSCI by 4.2% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 637,381 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $307,058,000 after purchasing an additional 25,497 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $631.83.

MSCI Trading Down 1.8 %

MSCI stock opened at $593.86 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $583.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $537.35. MSCI Inc. has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $631.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.99, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.45 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.08%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.