Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 190,448 MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 190,448 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $91,748,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter worth about $496,541,000. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its position in shares of MSCI by 803.9% during the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 587,978 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $331,906,000 after acquiring an additional 522,926 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its position in shares of MSCI by 3,600.0% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 253,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $143,469,000 after acquiring an additional 246,781 shares during the last quarter. Findlay Park Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the first quarter worth about $114,836,000. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of MSCI by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,725,215 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $976,009,000 after acquiring an additional 151,108 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSCI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Redburn Atlantic raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Argus raised their target price on MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.21.

MSCI Stock Performance

MSCI stock traded up $3.09 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $533.83. The stock had a trading volume of 215,857 shares, compared to its average volume of 579,918. MSCI Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $502.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $523.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.29 billion, a PE ratio of 36.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.10.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.55 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $696.41 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 143.09% and a net margin of 43.86%. MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.26 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 14.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.20%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 43.69%.

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.