Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Sold by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky decreased its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,571 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 355 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $5,291,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Moody’s by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,283,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,613,867,000 after purchasing an additional 119,450 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 8.4% in the second 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 acquiring an additional 225,846 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 133.9% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $958,481,000 after acquiring an additional 1,303,434 shares during the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd grew 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 buying an additional 24,107 shares during the period. Finally, Windacre Partnership LLC lifted its stake in Moody’s by 11.1% in the first quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 1,746,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $686,230,000 after buying an additional 173,900 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on MCO. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $480.46.

Insider Activity 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 stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $473,647.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related 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 transaction of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at $3,084,606.82. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $473,647.20. 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 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of MCO opened at $469.88 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $85.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $472.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $428.74. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $298.86 and a 1 year high of $495.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick 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 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.30 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 11.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Moody’s’s payout ratio 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.