Congress Wealth Management LLC DE Purchases 971 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Congress Wealth Management LLC DE increased its position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 3.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 29,710 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 971 shares during the quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $11,677,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,974,432 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,418,296,000 after acquiring an additional 88,667 shares in the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. lifted its position in Moody’s by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 12,049,611 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,706,096,000 after buying an additional 1,678,594 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter worth about $720,502,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,773,991 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $692,850,000 after acquiring an additional 229,831 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,515,430 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $591,867,000 after acquiring an additional 4,444 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $424.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $405.00 to $414.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $350.00 to $374.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $403.00.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:MCO opened at $421.49 on Tuesday. Moody’s Co. has a 12-month low of $298.86 and a 12-month high of $428.79. The business has a 50 day moving average of $402.52 and a 200-day moving average of $391.66. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68. The stock has a market cap of $76.96 billion, a PE ratio of 46.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.28.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $3.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.31. Moody’s had a return on equity of 54.50% and a net margin of 27.01%. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.99 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 10.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is presently 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.