Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Sold by Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda.

Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda. decreased its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 40.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,680 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,800 shares during the period. Moody’s makes up approximately 0.6% of Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda.’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,269,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MCO. Fielder Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $601,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,395 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $8,234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,288 shares during the period. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 56.0% in the fourth quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 6,747 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,194,000 after purchasing an additional 2,421 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 92,060.2% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 612,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $290,112,000 after purchasing an additional 612,200 shares during the period. Finally, Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 65,572 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,040,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $528.77.

Moody’s Trading Down 0.9 %

Moody’s stock opened at $493.65 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $488.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $481.88. 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 quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued 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 company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. Research analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $474.86, for a total transaction of $133,435.66. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,390,984.84. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.