Westfield Capital Management Co. LP Buys 25,849 Shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI)

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its stake in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 20.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 153,943 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,849 shares during the quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP’s holdings in MSCI were worth $89,738,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in MSCI during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. HWG Holdings LP bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth $27,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of MSCI during the second quarter worth $40,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MSCI in the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSCI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $638.00 price objective on shares of MSCI in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of MSCI from $640.00 to $662.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on MSCI from $695.00 to $680.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on MSCI from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $631.83.

MSCI Trading Up 1.4 %

NYSE MSCI opened at $589.57 on Friday. MSCI Inc. has a 12 month low of $439.95 and a 12 month high of $631.70. The company has a market capitalization of $46.21 billion, a PE ratio of 38.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $586.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $541.98.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.77 by $0.09. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 162.06% and a net margin of 43.06%. The company had revenue of $724.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.45 EPS. MSCI’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MSCI Inc. will post 14.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.02%.

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.