Centaurus Financial Inc. Buys New Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Centaurus Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 966 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $541,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,062,626,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,320,761 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,884,233,000 after buying an additional 39,450 shares during the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY bought a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,798,710,000. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of MSCI by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,467,556 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,415,713,000 after acquiring an additional 52,242 shares during the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,446,291 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $829,781,000 after acquiring an additional 168,405 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on MSCI shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of MSCI from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Barclays boosted their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $735.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. UBS Group set a $615.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $715.00 to $730.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Raymond James Financial upped their target price on MSCI from $730.00 to $760.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $709.50.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of MSCI opened at $571.20 on Friday. MSCI Inc has a 52 week low of $501.08 and a 52 week high of $644.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.25, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $579.52 and a 200-day moving average of $573.14.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $4.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.99 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $867.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $870.71 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 55.19% and a net margin of 40.74%.MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $4.17 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MSCI Inc will post 19.61 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th were given a dividend of $2.05 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 14th. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.86%.

MSCI Company Profile

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.