Boston Financial Mangement LLC Grows Position in MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Boston Financial Mangement LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI - Free Report) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,933 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring 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 hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of MSCI by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 484 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. raised its stake in MSCI by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 3,656 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,194,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in MSCI by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 23,928 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $14,357,000 after purchasing an additional 1,524 shares during the last quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd lifted its position in MSCI by 120.0% during the fourth quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd now owns 5,500 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,300,000 after purchasing an additional 3,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC grew its stake in MSCI by 97.4% in the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 12,308 shares of the technology company's stock worth $7,385,000 after buying an additional 6,072 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.97% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MSCI has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 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. reduced their price objective on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on MSCI from $662.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $649.23.

MSCI Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MSCI traded up $4.36 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $578.71. The stock had a trading volume of 565,157 shares, compared to its average volume of 554,625. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $597.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $587.09. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45. The firm has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a net margin of 38.83% and a negative return on equity of 156.08%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.68 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $1.80 per share. This is a positive change from MSCI's previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. MSCI's dividend payout ratio is presently 51.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSCI

In related news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez acquired 2,900 shares of MSCI stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $612.80 per share, with a total value of $1,777,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 330,379 shares in the company, valued at $202,456,251.20. This trade represents a 0.89 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MSCI Profile

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.