Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $506.14.

MCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $454.00 to $459.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James downgraded Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Moody’s from $462.00 to $481.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.99, for a total transaction of $134,596.19. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,354 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,387,952.46. This trade represents a 0.46 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total value of $777,294.40. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,415 shares in the company, valued at $654,296. This represents a 54.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,524 shares of company stock worth $1,178,413. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moody’s

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MCO. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 10.6% during the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,437 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,446,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in Moody’s by 12.9% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 99,550 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $41,904,000 after buying an additional 11,362 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Moody’s by 22.9% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 24,403 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,272,000 after buying an additional 4,548 shares in the last quarter. Qsemble Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s in the second quarter worth about $211,000. Finally, Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 10.5% in the second quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 13,045 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,491,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $475.74 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $480.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $470.37. Moody’s has a fifty-two week low of $360.05 and a fifty-two week high of $503.95. The firm has a market cap of $86.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.97% and a net margin of 29.05%. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.43 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Moody’s will post 12.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.05%.

Moody’s Company Profile

Moody’s Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody’s Analytics and Moody’s Investors Services. The Moody’s Analytics segment develops a range of products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in financial markets.