Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Acquired by Czech National Bank

Czech National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 6.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,902 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,977 shares during the quarter. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $15,140,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its holdings in Moody’s by 392.6% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 24,668 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,634,000 after buying an additional 19,660 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Moody’s by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 223,255 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $87,194,000 after buying an additional 726 shares in the last quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC grew its holdings in Moody’s by 125.5% in the 4th quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 1,775 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $693,000 after buying an additional 988 shares in the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in Moody’s by 18.2% in the 4th quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 5,703 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,228,000 after buying an additional 878 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group grew its holdings in Moody’s by 35.9% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 388,046 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $151,555,000 after buying an additional 102,422 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total value of $848,010.66. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $473,647.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total value of $848,010.66. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $473,647.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, 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 directly owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,084,606.82. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on MCO shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group increased their price target on Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Moody’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Raymond James lowered Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $521.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $483.85.

Moody’s Stock Down 1.5 %

Moody’s stock traded down $7.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $460.53. 1,308,959 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 740,405. 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 has a market cap of $84.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s Co. has a 1-year low of $298.86 and a 1-year high of $495.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $472.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $429.54.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The firm’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.30 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 11.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.