Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Purchases 340 Shares of MSCI Inc $MSCI

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. raised its position in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 24.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,715 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 340 shares during the quarter. Mufg Securities Americas Inc.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $989,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 5.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,376,852 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,302,610,000 after acquiring an additional 518,833 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in MSCI by 355.7% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 660,690 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $365,976,000 after purchasing an additional 515,713 shares in the last quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at about $175,912,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter worth approximately $119,408,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the first quarter valued at approximately $117,879,000. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays increased their price target on MSCI from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on MSCI from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded MSCI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of MSCI from $588.00 to $611.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $655.90.

MSCI Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $562.03 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.23 billion, a PE ratio of 35.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.34. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $562.90 and its 200 day moving average is $563.47. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.73 and a 1 year high of $642.45.

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

MSCI declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to repurchase up to 7.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a $1.80 dividend. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.63%.

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.