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

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of 1.60 per share by the technology company on Friday, May 31st. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th.

MSCI has increased its dividend by an average of 23.7% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 10 years. MSCI has a payout ratio of 37.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect MSCI to earn $16.88 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 37.9%.

MSCI Stock Up 4.2 %

MSCI stock opened at $464.81 on Thursday. MSCI has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $617.39. The company has a market cap of $36.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.73, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a 50 day moving average of $545.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $538.56.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.44 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $680.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. MSCI had a net margin of 44.55% and a negative return on equity of 111.33%. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.14 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that MSCI will post 14.81 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $671.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price target for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of MSCI from $530.00 to $425.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $562.87.

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.