Natixis Advisors LLC Purchases 9,651 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 17.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 64,524 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 9,651 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.08% of MSCI worth $37,613,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MSCI. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 30.0% in the 3rd quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $329,000 after buying an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in MSCI in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $91,748,000. Grove Bank & Trust grew its stake in MSCI by 52.4% in the 3rd quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 3,779 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,203,000 after buying an additional 1,299 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the 1st quarter valued at $778,000. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of MSCI by 207.9% during the 1st 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. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on MSCI. Argus boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of MSCI from $526.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $638.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven 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.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $631.83.

MSCI Price Performance

MSCI stock traded down $0.74 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $593.12. The company's stock had a trading volume of 591,732 shares, compared to its average volume of 542,911. The stock has a market cap of $46.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $583.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $538.33. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $631.70.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 firm's revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.45 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. MSCI's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.02%.

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.