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

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) announced its earnings results 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. MSCI had a net margin of 43.86% and a negative return on equity of 139.63%. The business had revenue of $707.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $696.41 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.26 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis.

MSCI Price Performance

NYSE MSCI traded up $10.24 during trading on Thursday, reaching $544.44. 200,040 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 588,985. The firm has a market cap of $43.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $494.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $524.47. MSCI has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $617.39.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.69%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of MSCI from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $425.00 to $525.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $613.00 to $569.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of 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 upped their price target on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $485.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $589.79.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other MSCI news, insider Scott A. Crum sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now owns 12,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,052,254.39. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.