Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Raises Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC lifted its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,316 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,096,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew 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 valued at $3,123,294,000 after purchasing an additional 723,226 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 32.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,075,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $985,115,000 after buying an additional 502,891 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 22.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,107,344,000 after acquiring an additional 430,878 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,708,851,000 after acquiring an additional 416,535 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canoe Financial LP increased its holdings in Moody’s by 510.8% in the 4th quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 422,624 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $200,058,000 after acquiring an additional 353,431 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on MCO shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $528.77.

Insider Activity

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $474.86, for a total transaction of $133,435.66. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,390,984.84. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Moody’s Stock Performance

NYSE MCO opened at $498.05 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.67. Moody’s Co. has a 1-year low of $360.05 and a 1-year high of $531.93. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $488.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $481.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $89.65 billion, a PE ratio of 44.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. On average, research analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 33.36%.

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.