Bank of America Cuts MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Price Target to $425.00

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) had its target price cut by research analysts at Bank of America from $530.00 to $425.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underperform” rating on the technology company’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective indicates a potential downside of 4.73% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of MSCI from $544.00 to $617.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on MSCI from $671.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on MSCI from $615.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $575.27.

MSCI Stock Down 13.4 %

NYSE MSCI opened at $446.09 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $547.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $539.08. MSCI has a 12-month low of $439.95 and a 12-month high of $617.39. The firm has a market cap of $35.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.98, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.06.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MSCI

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MSCI. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $496,541,000. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its holdings in MSCI by 803.9% in the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 587,978 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $331,906,000 after acquiring an additional 522,926 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI by 59.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 762,080 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $391,008,000 after acquiring an additional 284,513 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its holdings in MSCI by 3,600.0% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 253,636 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $143,469,000 after acquiring an additional 246,781 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in MSCI by 32.5% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 959,894 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $492,502,000 after acquiring an additional 235,290 shares during the last quarter. 89.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.