William Blair Has Bullish Forecast for Moody’s Q4 Earnings

Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) – Investment analysts at William Blair increased their Q4 2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Moody’s in a research note issued on Tuesday, October 22nd. William Blair analyst A. Nicholas now expects that the business services provider will post earnings of $2.18 per share for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $2.17. The consensus estimate for Moody’s’ current full-year earnings is $11.46 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Moody’s’ Q1 2025 earnings at $3.48 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $3.30 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $3.26 EPS and Q4 2025 earnings at $2.84 EPS.

MCO has been the topic of several other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Moody’s from $536.00 to $543.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Moody’s from $451.00 to $462.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $500.00.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $462.80 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $84.51 billion, a PE ratio of 50.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s has a 52-week low of $298.86 and a 52-week high of $495.10. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $478.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $438.28. 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 earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.32. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.43 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 37.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total transaction of $252,783.94. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,619,386.22. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,084,606.82. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of Moody’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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MCO. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Moody’s by 133.9% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $958,481,000 after buying an additional 1,303,434 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 74,000.1% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 724,699 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $343,935,000 after acquiring an additional 723,721 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Moody’s during the 2nd quarter worth about $141,336,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its stake in 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 valued at $117,826,000 after purchasing an additional 279,253 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allen Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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 valued at $351,781,000 after purchasing an additional 254,178 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.