Royal Bank of Canada Buys 134,303 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 38.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 483,873 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 134,303 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.63% of MSCI worth $273,631,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Graham Capital Management L.P. increased its holdings in MSCI by 64.9% in the 1st quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. now owns 9,865 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,579,000 after buying an additional 3,882 shares in the last quarter. MAI Capital Management increased its holdings in MSCI by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 3,783 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,139,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its holdings in MSCI by 109.6% in the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 935 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $529,000 after buying an additional 489 shares in the last quarter. Gobi Capital LLC bought a new stake in MSCI in the 1st quarter worth about $115,088,000. Finally, Stony Point Capital LLC increased its holdings in MSCI by 65.2% in the 1st quarter. Stony Point Capital LLC now owns 26,769 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,138,000 after buying an additional 10,562 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial upgraded MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on MSCI from $578.00 to $533.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on MSCI from $650.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.73.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $567.57 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.59, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.34. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $566.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $559.86. MSCI Inc has a 52-week low of $486.73 and a 52-week high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $4.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.12 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $772.68 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $763.06 million. MSCI had a net margin of 39.46% and a negative return on equity of 143.13%. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.64 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. MSCI’s payout ratio is 47.68%.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 84 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $548.69 per share, with a total value of $46,089.96. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,279,951 shares in the company, valued at $702,296,314.19. The trade was a 0.01% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders bought 12,400 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,599 in the last quarter. 3.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

MSCI Profile

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.