AGF Management Ltd. Sells 7,438 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

AGF Management Ltd. lessened its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 98,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 7,438 shares during the period. AGF Management Ltd.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $41,281,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MCO. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth about $720,502,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. raised its stake in Moody’s by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 12,049,611 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,706,096,000 after buying an additional 1,678,594 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Moody’s by 133.9% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $958,481,000 after buying an additional 1,303,434 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Moody’s in the second quarter valued at approximately $141,336,000. Finally, Allen Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Moody’s by 39.7% in the first quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 895,050 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $351,781,000 after buying an additional 254,178 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value of $252,783.94. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value of $252,783.94. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total value of $848,010.66. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $473,647.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Moody’s from $420.00 to $451.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group upped their target price on Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $465.00.

Moody’s Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:MCO opened at $478.59 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $87.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $298.86 and a 1 year high of $490.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $461.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $418.76.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.30 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 11.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.