Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 56 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $698,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in Moody’s during the third quarter worth $2,583,000. Adero Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 3.8% during the third quarter. Adero Partners LLC now owns 660 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $313,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 170,698 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $81,012,000 after purchasing an additional 10,790 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its stake in Moody’s by 567.2% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 80,781 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $38,338,000 after buying an additional 68,674 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 57.2% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 7,780 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,692,000 after buying an additional 2,831 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Moody’s from $536.00 to $543.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com lowered Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James lowered shares of Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $451.00 to $462.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $500.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total value of $777,294.40. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $654,296. The trade was a 54.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.99, for a total value of $134,596.19. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,354 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,387,952.46. The trade was a 0.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Trading Up 1.2 %

MCO opened at $474.54 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $85.99 billion, a PE ratio of 43.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s Co. has a one year low of $358.49 and a one year high of $495.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.67. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $473.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $450.02.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.97% and a net margin of 29.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.43 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 12.07 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders 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 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.05%.

Moody’s Company 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.