Tributary Capital Management LLC Trims Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Tributary Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,060 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 30 shares during the period. Tributary Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $417,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE raised its stake in Moody’s by 3.4% during the first quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 29,710 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $11,677,000 after purchasing an additional 971 shares during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Moody’s by 10.9% during the first quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 305 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $120,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC raised its stake in Moody’s by 20.9% during the first quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 3,398 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,336,000 after purchasing an additional 588 shares during the period. Kowal Investment Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 15.1% in the 1st quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC now owns 670 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $263,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the period. Finally, LVW Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 16.4% in the 1st quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 1,566 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $615,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. 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. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $350.00 to $374.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $424.00 to $454.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. StockNews.com raised shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target 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. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $403.00.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of MCO stock opened at $426.01 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $77.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. Moody’s Co. has a 1-year low of $298.86 and a 1-year high of $428.79. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $403.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $391.87.

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

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Moody’s’s 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.