DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Trims Stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lessened its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 107,775 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,267 shares during the quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned approximately 0.06% of Moody’s worth $44,992,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Conning Inc. increased its holdings in Moody’s by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 778 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $327,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.8% in the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,357 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $571,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 960 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Angeles Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,871 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,629,000 after buying an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on MCO. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $455.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $477.08.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total transaction of $252,783.94. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,619,386.22. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Moody’s news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total transaction of $252,783.94. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $476.96 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. Moody’s Co. has a 12-month low of $298.86 and a 12-month high of $490.18. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $463.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $420.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $86.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.29.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The company’s quarterly 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 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 11.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.12%.

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.