Dark Forest Capital Management LP Takes $386,000 Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 918 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $386,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Conning Inc. increased its holdings in Moody’s by 3.0% during the second quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 778 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $327,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Moody’s by 1.8% during the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,357 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $571,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 2.6% during the second quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 960 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $404,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 0.7% during the second quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,871 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,629,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Moody’s by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MCO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Moody’s from $454.00 to $492.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Moody’s from $420.00 to $451.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $477.08.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,619,386.22. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Moody’s news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total transaction of $848,010.66. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $473,647.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total transaction of $252,783.94. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,147 shares in the company, valued at $3,619,386.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Moody’s Price Performance

MCO stock opened at $473.49 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $470.55 and a 200-day moving average of $426.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. Moody’s Co. has a 12 month low of $298.86 and a 12 month high of $495.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.29.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. Moody’s’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.30 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 11.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. 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.