Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Hits New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday after The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on the stock from $460.00 to $514.00. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Moody’s traded as high as $490.00 and last traded at $490.00, with a volume of 38599 shares. The stock had previously closed at $487.74.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets cut Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $482.00 to $455.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays increased their target price on Moody’s from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com upgraded Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on Moody’s from $454.00 to $492.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $460.46.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total value of $232,030.00. Following the transaction, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was 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 at the SEC website. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value 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 company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moody’s

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Moody’s by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,283,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,613,867,000 after buying an additional 119,450 shares during the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 12,049,611 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,706,096,000 after purchasing an additional 1,678,594 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,918,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,228,382,000 after purchasing an additional 225,846 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 133.9% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $958,481,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303,434 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 1,980,021 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $833,450,000 after purchasing an additional 24,107 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $87.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $453.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $414.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a current ratio of 1.52.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.30 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 11.35 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is presently 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.