Avestar Capital LLC Purchases Shares of 376 MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Avestar Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 376 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 30.0% in the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $329,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the second quarter valued at approximately $91,748,000. Grove Bank & Trust grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 52.4% in the third quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,779 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,203,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 207.9% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 2,956 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MSCI by 29.6% in the second quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 21,384 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,302,000 after purchasing an additional 4,890 shares in the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $631.83.

MSCI Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:MSCI opened at $604.96 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $47.41 billion, a PE ratio of 39.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.11. MSCI Inc. has a twelve month low of $439.95 and a twelve month high of $631.70. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $589.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $544.93.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $716.15 million. MSCI had a net margin of 43.06% and a negative return on equity of 162.06%. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.45 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.06%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.02%.

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.