Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Boosts Stock Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 154.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,675 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,624 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,266,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MCO. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Moody’s by 272.2% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 67 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Asset Planning Inc bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Albion Financial Group UT bought a new stake in Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Moody’s during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on MCO shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $527.00.

Moody’s Trading Down 1.7 %

NYSE:MCO opened at $461.09 on Friday. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $360.05 and a 1 year high of $531.93. The business has a fifty day moving average of $485.56 and a 200-day moving average of $480.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $82.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.91, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. Equities analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $0.94 per share. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.36%.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

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.