Kowal Investment Group LLC Acquires 88 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Kowal Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 15.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 670 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $263,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of MCO. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 150.6% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,767 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $559,000 after purchasing an additional 1,062 shares in the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 21.8% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 1,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $334,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 22.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC now owns 1,099 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $347,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 47,126 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,900,000 after acquiring an additional 1,445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 146.1% during the 3rd quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,811 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $889,000 after acquiring an additional 1,669 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on MCO. Barclays upgraded shares of Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $405.00 to $414.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $350.00 to $374.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $424.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $403.00.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.1 %

MCO stock opened at $421.49 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $402.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $391.66. The company has a market capitalization of $76.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. Moody’s Co. has a 12 month low of $298.86 and a 12 month high of $428.79.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $3.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.31. Moody’s had a net margin of 27.01% and a return on equity of 54.50%. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 10.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.12%.

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.