Victory Capital Management Inc. Sells 996 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lessened its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 65,098 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 996 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $30,815,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MCO. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Moody’s by 0.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,047,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,344,802,000 after buying an additional 63,556 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 12.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,123,294,000 after buying an additional 723,226 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 13.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,708,851,000 after buying an additional 416,535 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 22.6% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,107,344,000 after buying an additional 430,878 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Moody’s by 32.0% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,075,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $985,115,000 after buying an additional 502,891 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Moody’s Trading Down 1.8 %

MCO stock opened at $461.97 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $489.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $482.72. Moody’s Co. has a 52 week low of $360.05 and a 52 week high of $531.93. The company has a market capitalization of $83.15 billion, a PE ratio of 40.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of $0.94 per share. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $528.77.

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.