Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Hits New 12-Month High at $426.35

Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $426.35 and last traded at $426.35, with a volume of 45350 shares. The stock had previously closed at $421.89.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on MCO. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $350.00 to $374.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Barclays upgraded shares of Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $375.00 to $450.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $405.00 to $414.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $411.00 to $424.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.50.

Moody’s Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market cap of $78.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 1.27. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $399.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $390.88.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $3.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 27.01% and a return on equity of 54.50%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.99 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 10.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.12%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moody’s

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. SRN Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. SRN Advisors LLC now owns 2,318 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $911,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. IMS Capital Management lifted its stake in Moody’s by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. IMS Capital Management now owns 4,270 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,678,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Moody’s by 69.0% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 551 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $204,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Moody’s by 98.3% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 7,886 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,099,000 after acquiring an additional 3,909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in Moody’s by 204.2% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 18,753 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,371,000 after acquiring an additional 12,588 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.