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

Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $527.00.

Several research firms recently weighed in on MCO. Citigroup began coverage on Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moody’s

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Moody’s by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,696,081 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,956,684,000 after purchasing an additional 63,820 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,047,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,344,802,000 after buying an additional 63,556 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,680,799 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,738,645,000 after buying an additional 68,627 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter worth approximately $988,750,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Moody’s by 20.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,776,729 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $841,050,000 after buying an additional 302,453 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO opened at $461.09 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $82.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. The company’s fifty day moving average is $485.56 and its 200-day moving average is $480.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. Moody’s has a 12 month low of $360.05 and a 12 month high of $531.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Equities analysts expect that Moody’s will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.94 dividend. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.82%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is 33.36%.

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.