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

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 yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th.

MSCI has raised its dividend by an average of 23.7% per year over the last three years. MSCI has a dividend payout ratio of 37.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of MSCI stock traded up $6.42 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $585.35. The stock had a trading volume of 35,959 shares, compared to its average volume of 537,441. MSCI has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $631.70. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $579.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $529.06. The company has a market capitalization of $46.04 billion, a PE ratio of 38.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 143.09%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.45 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MSCI shares. UBS Group upped their target price on MSCI from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MSCI from $615.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.