MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) Shares to Pay Quarterly Dividend of $2.05

MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be given a dividend of $2.05 per share by the technology company on Friday, November 27th. This represents a $8.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 13th.

MSCI has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. MSCI has a payout ratio of 43.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect MSCI to earn $22.33 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $8.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.7%.

MSCI Stock Up 5.3%

Shares of NYSE:MSCI traded up $29.60 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $593.09. The stock had a trading volume of 1,437,052 shares, compared to its average volume of 640,074. MSCI has a 12 month low of $501.08 and a 12 month high of $644.77. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $558.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $575.81. The company has a market cap of $43.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.44, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.24.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 20th. The technology company reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.03 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $892.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $887.83 million. MSCI had a net margin of 40.74% and a negative return on equity of 55.19%. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.47 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that MSCI will post 19.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CFO Andrew Wiechmann sold 450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.00, for a total value of $256,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 21,644 shares in the company, valued at $12,337,080. The trade was a 2.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 3.76% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MSCI

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of MSCI. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at $3,062,626,000. Bamco Inc. NY purchased a new position in MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,798,710,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at about $480,613,000. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at about $301,493,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at about $257,687,000. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) is a global provider of investment decision-support tools and services for institutional investors, asset managers, banks and other financial institutions. The company is best known for developing equity, fixed-income and multi-asset indexes used to benchmark portfolios and support the creation of investment products such as exchange-traded funds.

In addition to its indexes, MSCI provides portfolio analytics, risk-management and performance-attribution tools, as well as research and data covering environmental, social and governance factors, climate risk and sustainable investing.