MSCI (MSCI) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results and Next Report Date

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and MSCI published the results on October 20, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. MSCI reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and Adjusted EPS, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• MSCI's GAAP results for the first nine months of 2026 include an approximately $88 million discrete tax benefit from an internal legal entity restructuring, recognized in Q1 2026 and excluded from Adjusted EPS. It is the reason Q1 2026 GAAP diluted EPS ($5.53) is above the other quarters in the history table.
• All Other - Private Assets combines the Real Assets and Private Capital Solutions operating segments.

Source: MSCI Q3 2026 results, October 20, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How MSCI splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• MSCI's Index revenue was $533 million in Q3 2026, up 18% from $451 million in Q3 2025, 60% of total revenue.
• MSCI's Analytics revenue was $191 million in Q3 2026, up 5% from $182 million in Q3 2025, 21% of total revenue.
• MSCI's Sustainability and Climate revenue was $93.7 million in Q3 2026, up 4% from $90.1 million in Q3 2025, 11% of total revenue.
• MSCI's All Other - Private Assets revenue was $74.7 million in Q3 2026, up 7% from $70.0 million in Q3 2025, 8% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

MSCI gives no revenue or EPS outlook. Its release carries a full-year guidance table for expenses, interest, tax rate, capital expenditures and cash flow; the lines above are copied from that table.

In its Q3 2026 release, MSCI said:

“Operating Expense $1,535 to $1,575 million”

“Adjusted EBITDA Expense $1,340 to $1,370 million”

“Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities $1,655 to $1,705 million”

“Free Cash Flow $1,485 to $1,545 million”

Source: MSCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 20, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the MSCI forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP operating revenues and diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

MSCI's next report is scheduled for January 26, 2027. This page will show Q3 2026 until those results are out and have been checked against the release.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Oct 20, 2026

MSCI's Index segment brought in $532.6 million of its $892.0 million in Q3 2026 operating revenues. Analytics added $191.0 million, Sustainability and Climate $93.7 million and All Other - Private Assets $74.7 million. Index grew 18.1%, against 4.8% for Analytics and 4.0% for Sustainability and Climate. (MSCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

MSCI's revenue comes in three types: recurring subscriptions, asset-based fees and non-recurring revenue. Of the $98.6 million rise in Q3 2026, $49.1 million came from higher asset-based fees, $44.5 million from recurring subscriptions and $5.0 million from non-recurring revenues. Asset-based fees in Index rose 24.9% to $246.6 million. (MSCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

Asset-based fees depend on assets in funds that track MSCI indexes. Period-end AUM in ETFs linked to MSCI equity indexes was $2,905 billion at September 30, 2026, against $2,341 billion a year earlier, while the period-end basis point fee fell to 2.28 from 2.41. (MSCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

MSCI's revenue is concentrated in one client. BlackRock accounted for 11.8% of consolidated operating revenues in the first nine months of 2026 (10.6% a year earlier) and 19.8% of Index segment revenues, and 96.7% of the revenue from BlackRock came from fees based on assets in BlackRock products tied to MSCI indexes. MSCI served approximately 6,800 clients in more than 100 countries at the end of 2025. (MSCI Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 20, 2026; MSCI Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 6, 2026)

Total Run Rate, MSCI's measure of the annualized value of recurring client contracts, was $3,571.9 million at September 30, 2026, up 12.1%. Recurring subscription Run Rate grew organically by 8.7% and the Retention Rate was 95.0%, against 94.7% in Q3 2025. (MSCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

MSCI reported GAAP diluted EPS of $4.86, up 14.4%, and Adjusted EPS of $5.11, up 14.3%. Adjusted EPS adds back amortization of acquired intangible assets ($0.29 per share in the quarter) and acquisition-related integration and transaction costs ($0.01), less their tax effect ($0.05). (MSCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

Net income rose more slowly than EPS, up 7.9% to $351.0 million, because other expense, net climbed 45.2% to $74.2 million on higher interest expense from higher debt. The effective tax rate was 18.0%, against 17.9% a year earlier. (MSCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

Buybacks lifted per-share results. Weighted average diluted shares were 72.3 million, down 5.6% from 76.6 million. MSCI repurchased $552.3 million of stock in Q3 2026 at an average price of $562.92, and about $0.9 billion remained on its authorization as of October 19, 2026. (MSCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

MSCI does not guide on revenue or EPS. Its release carries a full-year 2026 table: operating expense of $1,535 to $1,575 million and adjusted EBITDA expense of $1,340 to $1,370 million (both unchanged), interest expense raised to $288 to $291 million, an effective tax rate of 18.0% to 19.5% (previously 18.0% to 20.0%) and free cash flow of $1,485 to $1,545 million. (MSCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

MSCI also states that it seeks to keep total debt to adjusted EBITDA in a target range of 3.0x to 3.5x. The ratio was 3.2x at September 30, 2026, with $6.8 billion of debt outstanding. (MSCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover MSCI, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones MSCI's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning MSCI is on is MSCI a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the MSCI forecast, and what the company does is on the MSCI (MSCI) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document MSCI published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.