Blair William & Co. IL Cuts Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Blair William & Co. IL cut its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 4.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,245 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,289 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $11,889,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in Moody’s by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 1,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $405,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at about $312,000. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 740 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $289,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its stake in Moody’s by 26.8% during the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 2,140 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $836,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 216.5% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 76,124 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,731,000 after purchasing an additional 52,073 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on MCO shares. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Moody’s from $420.00 to $451.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets downgraded Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $455.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $477.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total value of $232,030.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at $3,084,606.82. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total value of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at $3,084,606.82. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total transaction of $252,783.94. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,147 shares in the company, valued at $3,619,386.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:MCO opened at $490.11 on Friday. Moody’s Co. has a 12-month low of $298.86 and a 12-month high of $492.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $466.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $422.79. The firm has a market cap of $89.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.51, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.29.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.30 EPS. Moody’s’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 11.36 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.12%.

About Moody’s

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.