Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Buys 84 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. lifted its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,733 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,297,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MCO. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in Moody’s in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 114.3% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 75 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd acquired a new position in Moody’s during the 2nd quarter worth about $35,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in Moody’s during the 1st quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC increased its position in Moody’s by 83.0% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 86 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $521.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Raymond James lowered Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $500.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $473,647.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Moody’s news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total transaction of $848,010.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $473,647.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total value of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at $3,084,606.82. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.4 %

Moody’s stock opened at $466.94 on Friday. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $298.86 and a fifty-two week high of $495.10. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $85.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.98, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $478.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $437.61.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. The firm’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.43 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 11.46 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. 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.