MSCI Reports Financial Results for First Quarter 2025

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MSCI Inc. (“MSCI” or the “Company”) (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community, today announced its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2025 (“first quarter 2025”).

Financial and Operational Highlights for First Quarter 2025
(Note: Unless otherwise noted, percentage and other changes are relative to the three months ended March 31, 2024 (“first quarter 2024”) and Run Rate percentage changes are relative to March 31, 2024).

• Operating revenues of $745.8 million, up 9.7%; Organic operating revenue growth of 9.9%
• Recurring subscription revenues up 7.7%; Asset-based fees up 18.1%
• Operating margin of 50.6%; Adjusted EBITDA margin of 57.1%
• Diluted EPS of $3.71, up 15.2%; Adjusted EPS of $4.00, up 13.6%
• Organic recurring subscription Run Rate growth of 8.2%; Retention Rate of 95.3%
• In first quarter 2025 and through April 21, 2025, a total of $275.4 million or 493,322 shares were repurchased
• Approximately $139.7 million in dividends were paid to shareholders in first quarter 2025; Cash dividend of $1.80 per share declared by MSCI Board of Directors for second quarter 2025

“In the first quarter, MSCI delivered strong financial metrics, durable retention, and solid asset-based-fee revenue growth. At the product level, we drove recurring net new sales growth across Index, Analytics, and Private Assets. At the client-segment level, we posted strong run-rate growth with asset owners, hedge funds, banks and broker dealers, and wealth managers,” said Henry A. Fernandez, Chairman and CEO of MSCI.

“Looking ahead, MSCI has deep client relationships, differentiated capabilities and a resilient business model to weather periods of global turmoil, which are also the times when our clients rely on us the most. We provide mission-critical data, models, and technology that clients need in all environments and all phases of the market cycle, which supports our ability to achieve durable financial results.” Fernandez added.

First Quarter Consolidated Results

Operating Revenues: Operating revenues were $745.8 million, up 9.7%. Organic operating revenue growth was 9.9%. The $65.9 million increase was the result of a $39.6 million increase in recurring subscription revenues and a $27.2 million increase in asset-based fees, partially offset by a $0.9 million decrease in non-recurring revenues.

Run Rate and Retention Rate: Total Run Rate at March 31, 2025 was $2,979.2 million, up 9.3%. Recurring subscription Run Rate increased by $175.0 million, and asset-based fees Run Rate increased by $77.8 million. Organic recurring subscription Run Rate growth was 8.2%. Retention Rate in first quarter 2025 was 95.3%, compared to 92.8% in first quarter 2024.

Expenses: Total operating expenses were $368.8 million, up 8.3%. Adjusted EBITDA expenses were $320.2 million, up 8.0%, primarily reflecting higher compensation and benefits costs as a result of increased headcount as well as higher severance costs. The increase was also driven by non-compensation costs, primarily reflecting higher information technology costs.

Total operating expenses excluding the impact of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations (“ex-FX”) and adjusted EBITDA expenses ex-FX increased 10.0% and 9.9%, respectively.

Operating Income: Operating income was $377.0 million, up 11.1%. Operating income margin in first quarter 2025 was 50.6%, compared to 49.9% in first quarter 2024.

Headcount: As of March 31, 2025, we had 6,184 employees, reflecting a 5.6% increase, with 30.3% and 69.7% of employees located in developed market and emerging market locations, respectively.

Other Expense (Income), Net: Other expense (income), net was $46.0 million, up 5.7%, primarily driven by lower interest income reflecting lower average cash balances as well as unfavorable foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.

Income Taxes: The effective tax rate was 12.8% in first quarter 2025 compared to 13.5% in first quarter 2024. The tax rate was driven by excess tax benefits recognized on the vesting of stock-based compensation, as well as favorable discrete items related to prior years.

Net Income: As a result of the factors described above, net income was $288.6 million, up 12.8%.

Adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA was $425.6 million, up 11.0%. Adjusted EBITDA margin in first quarter 2025 was 57.1%, compared to 56.4% in first quarter 2024.

Index Segment:

Table 1A: Results (unaudited)

Index operating revenues were $421.7 million, up 12.8%. The $47.9 million increase was primarily driven by $27.2 million in higher asset-based fees and $20.4 million in higher recurring subscription revenues. Organic operating revenue growth for Index was 12.8%.

The growth in recurring subscription revenues was primarily driven by growth from market-cap weighted Index products.

The growth in revenues attributed to asset-based fees was primarily driven by increased average AUM in ETFs linked to MSCI equity indexes, partially offset by decreases in average basis point fees. The growth was also driven by increased average AUM in non-ETF indexed funds linked to MSCI indexes.

Index Run Rate as of March 31, 2025, was $1.6 billion, up 10.5%. The $156.3 million increase was comprised of a $78.5 million increase in recurring subscription Run Rate and a $77.8 million increase in asset-based fees Run Rate. The increase in recurring subscription Run Rate was primarily driven by growth from market cap-weighted and custom Index products. The increase reflected growth across all regions. The increase in asset-based fees Run Rate primarily reflected by higher AUM in ETFs linked to MSCI equity indexes and non-ETF indexed funds linked to MSCI indexes. Organic recurring subscription Run Rate growth for Index was 9.0%.

Analytics Segment:

Table 1B: Results (unaudited)

Analytics operating revenues were $172.2 million, up 5.0%. The $8.2 million increase was primarily driven by growth from recurring subscriptions related to both Equity Analytics and Multi-Asset Class products. Organic operating revenue growth for Analytics was 5.2%.

Analytics Run Rate as of March 31, 2025, was $707.8 million, up 6.9%. The increase of $45.7 million was driven by growth in both Equity Analytics and Multi-Asset Class products, and reflected growth across all regions and client segments. Organic recurring subscription Run Rate growth for Analytics was 6.8%.

Sustainability and Climate Segment:

Table 1C: Results (unaudited)

Beginning in the first quarter 2025, the business segment previously titled "ESG and Climate" has been renamed to "Sustainability and Climate" to reflect the full scope of our solutions more accurately. While our product offerings and product names remain unchanged at this time, the updated name acknowledges our broader sustainability capabilities across client objectives, value propositions and use cases.

Sustainability and Climate operating revenues were $84.6 million, up 8.6%. The $6.7 million increase was primarily driven by growth in Ratings and Climate products, with growth primarily attributable to EMEA. Organic operating revenue growth for Sustainability and Climate was 9.2%.

Sustainability and Climate Run Rate as of March 31, 2025, was $352.3 million, up 9.9%. The $31.7 million increase primarily reflects growth from Ratings, Climate and Screening products with contributions across all regions. Organic recurring subscription Run Rate growth for Sustainability and Climate was 9.6%.

All Other – Private Assets:

Table 1D: Results (unaudited)

All Other – Private Assets operating revenues, which reflect the Real Assets and Private Capital Solutions operating segments, were $67.3 million, up 4.7%. The increase was primarily driven by growth from recurring subscriptions in Private Capital Solutions related to Transparency and Universe Data products. Organic operating revenue growth for All Other – Private Assets was 5.2%.

All Other – Private Assets Run Rate was $273.5 million as of March 31, 2025, up 7.5%. The growth in Run Rate was primarily driven by growth from Private Capital Solutions related to Transparency and Universe Data products, and reflected growth across all regions and client segments. Organic recurring subscription Run Rate growth for All Other – Private Assets was 7.0%.

Select Balance Sheet Items and Capital Allocation

Cash Balances and Outstanding Debt: Cash and cash equivalents was $360.7 million as of March 31, 2025. MSCI typically seeks to maintain minimum cash balances globally of approximately $225.0 million to $275.0 million for general operating purposes.

Total principal amount of debt outstanding as of March 31, 2025, was $4.6 billion. The total debt to net income ratio (based on trailing twelve months net income) was 4.0x. The total debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio (based on trailing twelve months adjusted EBITDA) was 2.6x.

MSCI seeks to maintain total debt to adjusted EBITDA in a target range of 3.0x to 3.5x.

Capex and Cash Flow: Capex was $32.9 million, and net cash provided by operating activities increased by 0.5% to $301.7 million, primarily reflecting higher cash collections from customers, partially offset by higher cash expenses. Free cash flow for first quarter 2025 was down 2.5% year-over-year to $268.9 million.

Share Count and Share Repurchases: Weighted average diluted shares outstanding were 77.8 million in first quarter 2025, down 2.1% year-over-year. Total shares outstanding as of March 31, 2025 were 77.6 million. As of April 21, 2025 , a total of approximately $1.3 billion remains available on the outstanding share repurchase authorization.

Dividends: Approximately $139.7 million in dividends were paid to shareholders in first quarter 2025. On April 21, 2025, the MSCI Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $1.80 per share for second quarter 2025, payable on May 30, 2025 to shareholders of record as of the close of trading on May 16, 2025.

Full-Year 2025 Guidance

MSCI’s guidance for the year ending December 31, 2025 (“Full-Year 2025”) is based on assumptions about a number of factors, in particular related to macroeconomic factors and the capital markets. These assumptions are subject to uncertainty, and actual results for the year could differ materially from our current guidance, including as a result of the uncertainties, risks and assumptions discussed in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, as updated in quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K filed or furnished with the SEC. See “Forward-Looking Statements” below.

(1) A portion of our annual interest expense is from our variable rate indebtedness under our revolving credit facility, while the majority is from fixed rate senior unsecured notes. Changes to the secured overnight funding rate (“SOFR”) and indebtedness levels can cause our annual interest expense to vary.

Conference Call Information

MSCI’s senior management will review the first quarter 2025 results on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM Eastern Time. To listen to the live event via webcast, visit the events and presentations section of MSCI’s Investor Relations website, https://ir.msci.com/events-and-presentations. Participants who wish to join via telephone should click here to register in advance. Registered participants will receive an email confirmation with a unique PIN to access the conference call. The earnings call webcast will include an accompanying slide presentation that can be accessed through MSCI’s Investor Relations website.

About MSCI Inc.

MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 50 years of expertise in research, data and technology, we power better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. We create industry-leading research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process. To learn more, please visit www.msci.com. MSCI#IR

Forward-Looking Statements

This earnings release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including without limitation, MSCI’s Full-Year 2025 guidance. These forward-looking statements relate to future events or to future financial performance and involve underlying assumptions, as well as known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “may,” “could,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or “continue,” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond MSCI’s control and that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

Other factors that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements can be found in MSCI’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on February 7, 2025 and in quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K filed or furnished with the SEC. If any of these risks, uncertainties or other matters materialize, or if MSCI’s underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from what MSCI projected. Any forward-looking statement in this earnings release reflects MSCI’s current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to MSCI’s operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. MSCI assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

Website and Social Media Disclosure

MSCI uses its investor relations website ir.msci.com and social media outlets, such as LinkedIn or X (@MSCI_Inc), as channels of distribution of company information. The information MSCI posts through these channels may be deemed material. Accordingly, investors should monitor these channels, in addition to following MSCI’s press releases, SEC filings and public conference calls and webcasts. In addition, you may automatically receive email alerts and other information about MSCI when you enroll your email address by visiting the “Email Alerts” section of MSCI’s Investor Relations homepage at http://ir.msci.com/email-alerts. The contents of MSCI’s website, including its quarterly updates, blog, podcasts and social media channels are not, however, incorporated by reference into this earnings release.

Notes Regarding the Use of Operating Metrics

MSCI has presented supplemental key operating metrics as part of this earnings release, including Retention Rate, Run Rate, subscription sales, subscription cancellations and non-recurring sales.

Retention Rate is an important metric because subscription cancellations decrease our Run Rate and ultimately our future operating revenues over time. The annual Retention Rate represents the retained subscription Run Rate (subscription Run Rate at the beginning of the fiscal year less actual cancels during the year) as a percentage of the subscription Run Rate at the beginning of the fiscal year.

The Retention Rate for a non-annual period is calculated by annualizing the cancellations for which we have received a notice of termination or for which we believe there is an intention not to renew or discontinue the subscription during the non-annual period, and we believe that such notice or intention evidences the client’s final decision to terminate or not renew the applicable agreement, even though such termination or non-renewal may not be effective until a later date. This annualized cancellation figure is then divided by the subscription Run Rate at the beginning of the fiscal year to calculate a cancellation rate. This cancellation rate is then subtracted from 100% to derive the annualized Retention Rate for the period.

Retention Rate is computed by segment on a product/service-by-product/service basis. In general, if a client reduces the number of products or services to which it subscribes within a segment, or switches between products or services within a segment, we treat it as a cancellation for purposes of calculating our Retention Rate except in the case of a product or service switch that management considers to be a replacement product or service. In those replacement cases, only the net change to the client subscription, if a decrease, is reported as a cancel. In the Analytics and the Sustainability and Climate operating segments, substantially all product or service switches are treated as replacement products or services and netted in this manner, while in our Index, Real Assets, and Private Capital Solutions operating segments, product or service switches that are treated as replacement products or services and receive netting treatment occur only in certain limited instances. In addition, we treat any reduction in fees resulting from a down-sell of the same product or service as a cancellation to the extent of the reduction. We do not calculate Retention Rate for that portion of our Run Rate attributable to assets in index-linked investment products or futures and options contracts, in each case, linked to our indexes.

Run Rate estimates at a particular point in time the annualized value of the recurring revenues under our client license agreements (“Client Contracts”) for the next 12 months, assuming all Client Contracts that come up for renewal, or reach the end of the committed subscription period, are renewed and assuming then-current currency exchange rates, subject to the adjustments and exclusions described below. For any Client Contract where fees are linked to an investment product’s assets or trading volume/fees, the Run Rate calculation reflects, for ETFs, the market value on the last trading day of the period, for futures and options, the most recent quarterly volumes and/or reported exchange fees, and for other non-ETF products, the most recent client-reported assets. Run Rate does not include fees associated with “one-time” and other non-recurring transactions. In addition, we add to Run Rate the annualized fee value of recurring new sales, whether to existing or new clients, when we execute Client Contracts, even though the license start date, and associated revenue recognition, may not be effective until a later date. We remove from Run Rate the annualized fee value associated with products or services under any Client Contract when we (i) have received a notice of termination, non-renewal or an indication the client does not intend to continue their subscription during the period and (ii) have determined that such notice evidences the client’s final decision to terminate or not renew the applicable products or services, even though such termination or non-renewal may not be effective until a later date.

“Organic recurring subscription Run Rate growth” is defined as the period over period Run Rate growth, excluding the impact of changes in foreign currency and the first year impact of any acquisitions. It is also adjusted for divestitures. Changes in foreign currency are calculated by applying the currency exchange rate from the comparable prior period to current period foreign currency denominated Run Rate.

Sales represents the annualized value of products and services clients commit to purchase from MSCI and will result in additional operating revenues. Non-recurring sales represent the actual value of the customer agreements entered into during the period and are not a component of Run Rate. New recurring subscription sales represent additional selling activities, such as new customer agreements, additions to existing agreements or increases in price that occurred during the period and are additions to Run Rate. Subscription cancellations reflect client activities during the period, such as discontinuing products and services and/or reductions in price, resulting in reductions to Run Rate. Net new recurring subscription sales represent the amount of new recurring subscription sales net of subscription cancellations during the period, which reflects the net impact to Run Rate during the period.

MSCI Inc.

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