MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $1.60

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 28th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of 1.60 per share by the technology company on Friday, November 29th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th.

MSCI has increased its dividend payment by an average of 23.7% annually over the last three years. MSCI has a dividend payout ratio of 37.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect MSCI to earn $16.85 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 38.0%.

MSCI Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI traded down $0.83 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $578.10. 76,206 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 537,632. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $579.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $529.06. The company has a market cap of $45.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.78, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $631.70.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.45 EPS. Equities analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group boosted their target price on MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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. Seven equities 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, MSCI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $615.23.

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.