Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Sold by Slow Capital Inc.

Slow Capital Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 94 shares during the period. Slow Capital Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $2,947,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Moody’s by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,974,432 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,418,296,000 after purchasing an additional 88,667 shares during the last quarter. Akre Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Akre Capital Management LLC now owns 5,659,712 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,909,643,000 after buying an additional 38,615 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 5.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,301,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,359,927,000 after acquiring an additional 205,800 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in Moody’s by 29.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,994,497 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,112,947,000 after acquiring an additional 914,530 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Moody’s by 1.5% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,789,339 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $851,276,000 after acquiring an additional 41,746 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Moody’s from $455.00 to $420.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays raised shares of Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $411.00 to $424.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Moody’s from $355.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $397.75.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE MCO traded down $2.81 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $370.73. 900,047 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 637,445. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 1.74. Moody’s Co. has a 52-week low of $296.45 and a 52-week high of $407.62. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $385.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $368.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $67.66 billion, a PE ratio of 42.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.27.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.33 by ($0.14). The business had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 27.16% and a return on equity of 55.23%. Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.60 EPS. Analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 10.67 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is 38.95%.

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.