Hantz Financial Services Inc. Purchases 14,493 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 57.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 39,510 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,493 shares during the quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $23,032,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MSCI. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth $27,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in MSCI during the second quarter valued at $40,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in MSCI during the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp grew its stake in MSCI by 35.1% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSCI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $631.83.

MSCI Trading Up 0.5 %

MSCI stock opened at $604.96 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $589.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $544.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.41 billion, a PE ratio of 39.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $631.70.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The business’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.45 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.06%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.02%.

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.