MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.09 EPS

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The technology company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09, Briefing.com reports. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 139.63%. The firm had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.41 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.26 EPS. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year.

MSCI Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:MSCI traded up $10.29 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $544.49. The stock had a trading volume of 294,445 shares, compared to its average volume of 589,650. The company has a market capitalization of $43.14 billion, a PE ratio of 36.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $494.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $524.47. MSCI has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $617.39.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MSCI shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America upgraded shares of MSCI from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $425.00 to $525.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $589.79.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $471.69, for a total transaction of $4,245,210.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,052,254.39. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.