Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $500.00.

Several research firms recently issued reports on MCO. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $490.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted 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. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $521.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $451.00 to $462.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 52.2% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 35,264 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $14,844,000 after purchasing an additional 12,099 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its position in Moody’s by 98.3% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 7,886 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,099,000 after buying an additional 3,909 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in Moody’s by 204.2% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 18,753 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,371,000 after buying an additional 12,588 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Moody’s in the second quarter worth $141,336,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the third quarter worth $2,792,000. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of MCO opened at $500.88 on Friday. Moody’s has a twelve month low of $358.49 and a twelve month high of $503.95. The stock has a market cap of $90.76 billion, a PE ratio of 45.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $474.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $453.66.

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

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. 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.