Moody’s Corporation $MCO Shares Bought by Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 7.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 41,866 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,900 shares during the period. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $21,387,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 363 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $185,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. DeDora Capital Inc. grew its stake in Moody’s by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. DeDora Capital Inc. now owns 1,315 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $672,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Moody’s by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 753 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $385,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel grew its stake in Moody’s by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 1,081 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $552,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EWA LLC grew its stake in Moody’s by 4.4% in the third quarter. EWA LLC now owns 501 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $239,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Moody’s from $574.00 to $540.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Barclays decreased their price target on Moody’s from $580.00 to $550.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $610.00 price target on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Moody’s from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Moody’s from $526.00 to $489.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $544.29.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO stock opened at $456.63 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03. The business has a 50 day moving average of $448.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $476.01. Moody’s Corporation has a 52 week low of $402.28 and a 52 week high of $546.88. The company has a market cap of $79.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.73, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.37.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.33 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.22 by $0.11. Moody’s had a return on equity of 70.97% and a net margin of 31.69%.The company had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.83 earnings per share. Moody’s’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.69 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. Moody’s’s payout ratio is presently 29.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 5,213 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.71, for a total value of $2,380,829.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 75,789 shares in the company, valued at $34,613,594.19. The trade was a 6.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 375 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.71, for a total value of $171,266.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 2,459 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,123,049.89. This trade represents a 13.23% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,630 shares of company stock valued at $3,481,172. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Moody’s Profile

Moody’s Corporation is a global provider of credit ratings, research, data and analytics that support financial decision-making and transparency in capital markets. The company traces its origins to the early 20th century when financial analyst John Moody began publishing credit information; today Moody’s is headquartered in New York and serves a broad set of market participants including investors, issuers, financial institutions, corporations, governments and regulators.

Moody’s operates primarily through two complementary businesses.