Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Holdings Increased by Natixis

Natixis increased its position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 76.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 61,807 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 26,766 shares during the quarter. Natixis’ holdings in Moody’s were worth $29,258,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Moody’s by 0.4% during 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 buying an additional 63,820 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,680,799 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,738,645,000 after purchasing an additional 68,627 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter worth approximately $988,750,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted 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 worth $727,726,000 after buying an additional 53,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 73.6% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,131,656 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $534,255,000 after buying an additional 479,599 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Moody’s from $585.00 to $495.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $530.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised 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 given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $524.33.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.20, for a total value of $146,738.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,321,046.80. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,392 shares of company stock worth $659,535. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.3 %

Moody’s stock opened at $424.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $76.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.38. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $463.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $474.19. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $360.05 and a fifty-two 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. As a group, analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.89%. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.