Empowered Funds LLC Takes $4.75 Million Position in MSCI Inc $MSCI

Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 8,491 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,755,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSCI. United Capital Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in MSCI during the second quarter worth about $10,493,000. Equitable Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $507,000. Centaurus Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $541,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $747,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $12,578,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting MSCI

Here are the key news stories impacting MSCI this week:

• Positive Sentiment: MSCI implemented its periodic Saudi-market index changes and its August review across India, generating substantial passive-fund trading. India’s closing-auction session recorded roughly ?39,718 crore in turnover, or about 22% of total cash-market activity, highlighting the scale and influence of MSCI’s benchmarks. MSCI implements periodic changes in Saudi market today
• Positive Sentiment: Index additions including Sandisk, Groww, Lenskart, Laurus Labs and Adani Energy are expected to attract passive inflows, while index changes to other constituents drove billions of dollars in repositioning. The activity underscores MSCI’s pricing power and strategic importance to institutional investors. Sandisk to join the MSCI World Index
• Neutral Sentiment: India’s new closing-auction mechanism handled its first major MSCI rebalance, with approximately $4 billion of flows and sharp late-session swings. The successful processing of large institutional orders supports confidence in MSCI’s benchmark ecosystem, but the event primarily affects market infrastructure and constituent stocks rather than MSCI’s near-term revenue. MSCI rebalance to test India’s new closing auction
• Negative Sentiment: Broader risk sentiment remained cautious after Asian equities and MSCI’s Asia-Pacific gauge declined amid a more hawkish interest-rate outlook. This may weigh on valuation-sensitive financial-data and index businesses, despite MSCI’s recurring-revenue model. Asian stocks drop on hawkish outlook

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on MSCI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $742.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on MSCI from $730.00 to $760.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Weiss Ratings cut MSCI from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $690.00 price target on MSCI in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Evercore set a $722.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and eleven have given a Buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $709.50.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $572.02 on Tuesday. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $501.08 and a 1 year high of $644.77. The company has a market capitalization of $41.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $579.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $573.62.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The technology company reported $4.94 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.99 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $867.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $870.71 million. MSCI had a net margin of 40.74% and a negative return on equity of 55.19%. MSCI’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $4.17 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that MSCI Inc will post 19.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th were paid a dividend of $2.05 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. This represents a $8.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.86%.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc is a global provider of investment decision support tools and services for the financial industry. The company is best known for its family of market indexes, which are widely used as benchmarks by asset managers and as the basis for exchange-traded funds and other passive products. In addition to index construction and licensing, MSCI offers portfolio analytics, risk models, factor and performance attribution tools, and a suite of data and technology solutions designed to support portfolio management and trading.

Beyond traditional indexing and risk analytics, MSCI has expanded into environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings, offering data, scores and screening tools that help investors integrate sustainability considerations into investment processes.