Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Buys 92 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 15.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 701 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in MSCI were worth $409,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $91,748,000. Grove Bank & Trust increased its stake in MSCI by 52.4% during the 3rd quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,779 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,203,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA acquired a new stake in MSCI during the 1st quarter worth approximately $778,000. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC boosted 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 buying an additional 1,996 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on MSCI. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price target on MSCI from $650.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. UBS Group cut their target price on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $690.00 price objective on the stock. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $631.83.

MSCI Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $605.16 on Thursday. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $631.70. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $588.89 and a 200-day moving average of $544.51. The company has a market capitalization of $47.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.11.

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

MSCI Dividend Announcement

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

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.