LVW Advisors LLC Purchases 221 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

LVW Advisors LLC raised its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 16.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,566 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 221 shares during the period. LVW Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $615,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in Moody’s in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Moody’s by 87.7% in the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 122 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Advantage Trust Co bought a new position in Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at $52,000. Tompkins Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 200.0% in the 1st quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at $64,000. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Moody’s Price Performance

MCO stock opened at $421.49 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $402.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $391.66. The stock has a market cap of $76.96 billion, a PE ratio of 46.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $298.86 and a 1 year high of $428.79.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its 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. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 54.50% and a net margin of 27.01%. The company’s revenue was up 21.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.99 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 10.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 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.