LVW Advisors LLC Has $615,000 Stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

LVW Advisors LLC boosted its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 16.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,566 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 221 shares during the period. LVW Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $615,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. SteelPeak Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Moody’s in the first quarter valued at $234,000. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 4.6% during the first quarter. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 12,810 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,035,000 after purchasing an additional 561 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 42.2% during the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,459 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,146,000 after purchasing an additional 1,621 shares during the period. Norris Perne & French LLP MI raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 0.8% during the first quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI now owns 53,192 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $20,906,000 after purchasing an additional 396 shares during the period. Finally, DeDora Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s during the first quarter valued at about $487,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the topic of several research reports. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $405.00 to $414.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Barclays upgraded shares of Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $375.00 to $450.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $350.00 to $374.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $424.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $403.00.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of MCO stock opened at $421.49 on Tuesday. Moody’s Co. has a 52-week low of $298.86 and a 52-week high of $428.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $402.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $391.66. The company has a market capitalization of $76.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.01, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.12%.

About Moody’s

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.