MSCI (NYSE: MSCI) shares moved up 6.7% in the past year compared with the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s return of 39.8% and the Zacks Business – Software Services sector’s rise of 29.2%.
The underperformance is likely to have been caused by a tighter spending environment and longer sales cycles due to challenging macroeconomic conditions.
Increasing pricing pressure is also a major concern, primarily due to the growing availability of free indices from providers like Morningstar (NASDAQ: MORN).
As Morningstar continues to offer more accessible options, self-indexing and lower spending by asset managers on gathering data are other headwinds.