Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Price Target Increased to $550.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) had its price objective raised by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $510.00 to $550.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the business services provider’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price points to a potential upside of 16.68% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Raymond James downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $487.77.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE MCO traded up $0.36 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $471.36. 246,935 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 740,844. Moody’s has a 1-year low of $298.86 and a 1-year high of $495.10. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $473.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $431.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $86.07 billion, a PE ratio of 51.46, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.29. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.22. The company 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 revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.30 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Moody’s will post 11.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value of $252,783.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value of $252,783.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total transaction of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,084,606.82. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Moody’s

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 purchasing an additional 119,450 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Moody’s by 8.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,918,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,228,382,000 after purchasing an additional 225,846 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Moody’s by 133.9% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $958,481,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303,434 shares during the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd lifted its position in Moody’s by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 1,980,021 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $833,450,000 after purchasing an additional 24,107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Windacre Partnership LLC lifted its position in Moody’s by 11.1% in the 1st quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 1,746,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $686,230,000 after purchasing an additional 173,900 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.