Boston Financial Mangement LLC Has $18.56 Million Holdings in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Boston Financial Mangement LLC grew its stake in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 30,933 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 669 shares during the period. Boston Financial Mangement LLC’s holdings in MSCI were worth $18,560,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LRI Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of MSCI by 120.0% in the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 44 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new stake in MSCI in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new position in shares of MSCI during the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp increased its stake in MSCI by 35.1% in the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 77 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on MSCI. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.23.

Insider Activity at MSCI

In other MSCI news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. The trade was a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

MSCI Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $574.18 on Thursday. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $599.50 and its 200-day moving average is $587.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.84, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.68 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio is 51.21%.

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.