MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.09 EPS

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The technology company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.55 by $0.09, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $707.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $696.41 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 139.63% and a net margin of 43.86%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.26 EPS.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI traded down $4.59 during trading on Thursday, reaching $529.61. 23,382 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 587,741. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $494.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $524.47. The firm has a market cap of $41.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.10. MSCI has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $617.39.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid 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 yield of 1.21%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.69%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MSCI. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on MSCI from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $589.79.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In related news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,052,254.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.