Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Position Increased by Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC lifted its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 17,290 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the period. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $8,185,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,047,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,344,802,000 after buying an additional 63,556 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,123,294,000 after acquiring an additional 723,226 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted 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 purchasing an additional 416,535 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Moody’s by 32.0% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,075,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $985,115,000 after purchasing an additional 502,891 shares during the period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Moody’s by 3.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 53,504 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $527.00.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Moody’s stock opened at $459.57 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $82.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $485.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $480.65. Moody’s Co. has a 52-week low of $360.05 and a 52-week high of $531.93. 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 (NYSE:MCO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. As a group, analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.94 dividend. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s payout ratio is presently 33.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

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.