MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Plans Dividend Increase – $1.80 Per Share

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.80 per share by the technology company on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60.

MSCI has raised its dividend payment by an average of 20.7% per year over the last three years. MSCI has a payout ratio of 33.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect MSCI to earn $16.93 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 37.8%.

MSCI Trading Down 0.5 %

MSCI stock traded down $2.69 during trading on Thursday, reaching $590.36. The stock had a trading volume of 499,827 shares, compared to its average volume of 468,670. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $606.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $581.51. The firm has a market cap of $46.27 billion, a PE ratio of 38.76, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI has a 52 week low of $439.95 and a 52 week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.68 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 14.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This represents a 0.89 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MSCI shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group cut their price target on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MSCI has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

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.