Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Receives $500.00 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and eight have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $500.00.

A number of research analysts have issued reports on MCO shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $454.00 to $459.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James cut shares of Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total transaction of $777,294.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $654,296. This represents a 54.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.99, for a total value of $134,596.19. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,354 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,387,952.46. This represents a 0.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moody’s

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MCO. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its position in Moody’s by 538.4% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 55,544 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $26,361,000 after buying an additional 46,843 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 29.3% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 5,399 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,562,000 after purchasing an additional 1,222 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its stake in Moody’s by 23.4% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 8,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,897,000 after purchasing an additional 1,535 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,298 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,989,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the period. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC raised its position in Moody’s by 210.4% during the 3rd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 15,612 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,409,000 after purchasing an additional 10,582 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO opened at $499.69 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $473.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $452.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.54 billion, a PE ratio of 45.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s has a one year low of $358.49 and a one year high of $501.21.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.97% and a net margin of 29.05%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.43 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Moody’s will post 12.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.05%.

About Moody’s

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.