Bokf Na Lowers Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Bokf Na reduced its position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,883 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 288 shares during the period. Bokf Na’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,634,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MCO. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,283,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,613,867,000 after buying an additional 119,450 shares in the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Moody’s by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 12,049,611 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,706,096,000 after acquiring an additional 1,678,594 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Moody’s by 8.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,918,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,228,382,000 after acquiring an additional 225,846 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 1,303,434 shares during the period. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 1,980,021 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $833,450,000 after purchasing an additional 24,107 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on MCO shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Moody’s from $420.00 to $451.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised Moody’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $477.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Moody’s Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:MCO opened at $476.96 on Friday. Moody’s Co. has a 12-month low of $298.86 and a 12-month high of $490.18. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $463.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $420.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. The firm has a market cap of $86.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.07, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.29.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter 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 forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 11.36 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.12%.

Moody’s 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.