Proficio Capital Partners LLC Has $290.11 Million Stock Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 92,060.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 612,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 612,200 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $290,112,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,047,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,344,802,000 after buying an additional 63,556 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,123,294,000 after buying an additional 723,226 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,708,851,000 after buying an additional 416,535 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 22.6% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,107,344,000 after buying an additional 430,878 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 32.0% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,075,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $985,115,000 after buying an additional 502,891 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.8 %

NYSE:MCO opened at $498.05 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The stock has a market cap of $89.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.19, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $488.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $481.79. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $360.05 and a 1 year high of $531.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of $0.94 per share. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com cut Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $528.77.

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.