PFG Advisors Buys 1,428 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

PFG Advisors grew its stake in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 30.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,080 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,428 shares during the quarter. PFG Advisors’ holdings in MSCI were worth $3,507,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in MSCI by 43.3% in the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 27,857 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,753,000 after purchasing an additional 8,412 shares during the period. Kathmere Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of MSCI by 21.3% in the 1st quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 809 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $457,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 6.0% in the first quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 23,825 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,473,000 after acquiring an additional 1,354 shares during the period. Rainey & Randall Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MSCI in the first quarter worth $252,000. Finally, CWM LLC increased its position in MSCI by 202.6% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 14,507 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $8,204,000 after acquiring an additional 9,713 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays raised their target price on MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of MSCI from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of MSCI from $533.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $655.90.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $582.50 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $43.77 billion, a PE ratio of 36.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $562.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $561.89.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $4.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.37 by $0.10. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 110.94% and a net margin of 40.03%.The firm had revenue of $793.43 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $794.87 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.86 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 EPS for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. MSCI’s payout ratio is 45.63%.

MSCI announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to buy up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

MSCI Company 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.