Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Price Target Raised to $464.00 at BMO Capital Markets

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) had its price target boosted by BMO Capital Markets from $455.00 to $464.00 in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a market perform rating on the business services provider’s stock.

MCO has been the subject of several other reports. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an outperform rating and a $521.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $451.00 to $462.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Moody’s from a market perform rating to an underperform rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $492.00 to $536.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective 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 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Moody’s currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $488.46.

Moody’s Price Performance

Moody’s stock opened at $487.18 on Tuesday. Moody’s has a 52-week low of $298.86 and a 52-week high of $495.10. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $475.72 and a 200-day moving average of $434.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.19, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.30 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Moody’s will post 11.46 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 37.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total value of $848,010.66. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $473,647.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,619,386.22. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total transaction of $848,010.66. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $473,647.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Moody’s

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of MCO. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in 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 valued at $958,481,000 after buying an additional 1,303,434 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Moody’s during the 2nd quarter valued at about $141,336,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its stake in Moody’s by 41,992.9% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 279,918 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $117,826,000 after buying an additional 279,253 shares during the period. Allen Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Moody’s by 39.7% during the 1st quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 895,050 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $351,781,000 after buying an additional 254,178 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in 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 valued at $1,228,382,000 after buying an additional 225,846 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

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.