11 Capital Partners LP Boosts Stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

11 Capital Partners LP increased its position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,701 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 580 shares during the period. Moody’s makes up about 5.3% of 11 Capital Partners LP’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest position. 11 Capital Partners LP’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $13,765,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MCO. TCI Fund Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Moody’s by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 12,049,611 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,706,096,000 after acquiring an additional 1,678,594 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 133.9% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $958,481,000 after buying an additional 1,303,434 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Moody’s in the 2nd quarter worth $141,336,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 41,992.9% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 279,918 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $117,826,000 after buying an additional 279,253 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allen Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 39.7% in the 1st quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 895,050 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $351,781,000 after buying an additional 254,178 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MCO. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $482.00 to $455.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $454.00 to $492.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Moody’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Six 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $477.08.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $494.66 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. Moody’s Co. has a 12 month low of $298.86 and a 12 month high of $495.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.32 billion, a PE ratio of 54.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $467.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $423.57.

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

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value of $252,783.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total transaction of $252,783.94. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total transaction of $848,010.66. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $473,647.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.