MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) to Issue $1.60 Quarterly Dividend

MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of 1.60 per share by the technology company on Friday, May 31st. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%.

MSCI has raised its dividend by an average of 23.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 10 consecutive years. MSCI has a dividend payout ratio of 37.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect MSCI to earn $16.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.8%.

MSCI Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:MSCI opened at $515.10 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $40.81 billion, a PE ratio of 35.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $550.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $539.55. MSCI has a 12-month low of $451.55 and a 12-month high of $617.39.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $3.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.46 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $680.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 111.17% and a net margin of 45.42%. MSCI’s revenue was up 14.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.14 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that MSCI will post 14.84 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on MSCI in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Redburn Atlantic cut MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price target for the company from $620.00 to $470.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays raised their price target on MSCI from $600.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $581.57.

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.