Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ Purchases 902 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ raised its position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 33,333 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 902 shares during the quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $14,034,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MCO. TCI Fund Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $4,706,096,000 after acquiring an additional 1,678,594 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $958,481,000 after acquiring an additional 1,303,434 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the second quarter worth approximately $141,336,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 41,992.9% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 279,918 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $117,826,000 after acquiring an additional 279,253 shares during the period. Finally, Allen Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $351,781,000 after acquiring an additional 254,178 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on MCO shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $477.08.

Moody’s Price Performance

MCO stock opened at $494.66 on Friday. Moody’s Co. has a one year low of $298.86 and a one year high of $495.10. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $467.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $423.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a current ratio of 1.52. The company has a market capitalization of $90.32 billion, a PE ratio of 54.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.29.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its 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. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.30 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 11.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.12%.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total transaction of $232,030.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,084,606.82. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total transaction of $232,030.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,084,606.82. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the company’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 sale, the insider now directly owns 8,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over 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.

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.