Longview Partners Guernsey LTD Has $618.60 Million Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Longview Partners Guernsey LTD lowered its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 11.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,469,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 196,540 shares during the quarter. Moody’s accounts for 4.6% of Longview Partners Guernsey LTD’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Longview Partners Guernsey LTD owned 0.80% of Moody’s worth $618,603,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MCO. Benjamin Edwards Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 114.3% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 75 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Y.D. More Investments Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MCO. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. UBS Group upped their target price on Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets lowered Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $482.00 to $455.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $477.08.

Moody’s Price Performance

NYSE:MCO opened at $494.66 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $467.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $423.57. The stock has a market cap of $90.32 billion, a PE ratio of 54.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s Co. has a 52 week low of $298.86 and a 52 week high of $495.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59.

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

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,084,606.82. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,084,606.82. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were 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. Insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.