MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.80

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 23rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of 1.80 per share by the technology company on Friday, May 30th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th.

MSCI has increased its dividend by an average of 20.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 11 years. MSCI has a payout ratio of 38.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect MSCI to earn $19.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $7.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.8%.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock opened at $530.13 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $555.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $584.22. MSCI has a fifty-two week low of $458.69 and a fifty-two week high of $642.45. The company has a market cap of $41.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.88 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $746.45 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. On average, analysts expect that MSCI will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $524.25, for a total value of $2,621,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 294,787 shares in the company, valued at $154,542,084.75. The trade was a 1.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on MSCI. Barclays cut their target price on shares of MSCI from $675.00 to $650.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on MSCI from $673.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on MSCI from $532.00 to $530.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 price objective on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MSCI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.36.

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.