Short Interest in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Increases By 33.5%

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,090,000 shares, a growth of 33.5% from the March 31st total of 816,300 shares. Approximately 1.4% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 546,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MSCI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Friday, April 12th. UBS Group lowered their target price on MSCI from $700.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com downgraded MSCI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Bank of America upgraded shares of MSCI from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $425.00 to $525.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of MSCI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $613.00 to $569.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MSCI has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $569.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 13,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $465.92 per share, for a total transaction of $6,056,960.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at approximately $152,579,015.68. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez bought 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $465.92 per share, with a total value of $6,056,960.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 327,479 shares in the company, valued at approximately $152,579,015.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit purchased 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $459.41 per share, for a total transaction of $3,445,575.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief operating officer now owns 291,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $133,705,767.58. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MSCI

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lifted its position in MSCI by 151.3% during the first quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,307 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $733,000 after buying an additional 787 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC increased its position in shares of MSCI by 31.8% in the first quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 974 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $546,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. M3 Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of MSCI in the 1st quarter valued at $233,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MSCI by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 48,601 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,239,000 after acquiring an additional 3,465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in MSCI by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 10,574 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,927,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

MSCI Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI traded down $11.19 on Tuesday, reaching $465.79. 931,183 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 557,791. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.90 billion, a PE ratio of 32.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.06. MSCI has a fifty-two week low of $439.95 and a fifty-two week high of $617.39. The company has a 50 day moving average of $539.87 and a 200 day moving average of $537.69.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.44 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $680.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. MSCI had a net margin of 44.55% and a negative return on equity of 121.86%. MSCI’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.14 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI will post 14.59 earnings per share for the current year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. MSCI’s payout ratio is currently 43.69%.

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.