CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC Has $23.95 Million Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC trimmed its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 50,721 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 629 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $23,945,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,696,081 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,956,684,000 after acquiring an additional 63,820 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Moody’s by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,047,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,344,802,000 after purchasing an additional 63,556 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted 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 valued at $1,708,851,000 after purchasing an additional 416,535 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth approximately $988,750,000. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,537,331 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $727,726,000 after buying an additional 53,504 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on MCO. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $527.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $474.86, for a total value of $133,435.66. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Moody’s Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:MCO opened at $465.82 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. 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 $83.80 billion, a PE ratio of 41.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a fifty day moving average of $485.36 and a 200-day moving average of $479.92.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. On average, equities 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 was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s payout ratio is presently 33.36%.

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.