HWG Holdings LP Takes Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

HWG Holdings LP acquired a new stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 127 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $53,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its position in Moody’s by 392.6% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 24,668 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,634,000 after purchasing an additional 19,660 shares during the last quarter. Motco increased its position in Moody’s by 9,756.3% during the first quarter. Motco now owns 1,577 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $620,000 after purchasing an additional 1,561 shares during the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC acquired a new position in Moody’s during the first quarter worth approximately $2,967,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in 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 worth $14,844,000 after purchasing an additional 12,099 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in Moody’s by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 59,952 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $23,415,000 after purchasing an additional 2,518 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on MCO. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Moody’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective 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. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $477.08.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $473,647.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Moody’s news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $473,647.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at $3,084,606.82. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of MCO stock opened at $473.49 on Monday. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $298.86 and a twelve month high of $495.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. The company has a market capitalization of $86.46 billion, a PE ratio of 51.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $470.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $427.19.

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

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.12%.

Moody’s 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.