American Century Companies Inc. Sells 1,148 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

American Century Companies Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 4.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 22,826 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,148 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $10,805,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 0.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,047,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,344,802,000 after acquiring an additional 63,556 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Moody’s by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,708,851,000 after purchasing an additional 416,535 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,537,331 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $727,726,000 after purchasing an additional 53,504 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its holdings in Moody’s by 73.6% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,131,656 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $534,255,000 after buying an additional 479,599 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 994,384 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $470,712,000 after buying an additional 31,780 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 target price for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $527.00.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $494.42, for a total transaction of $138,932.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $30,601,631.48. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 1,258 shares of company stock valued at $610,936 over the last ninety days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $471.66 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $484.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $479.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.85, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. Moody’s Co. has a 52-week low of $360.05 and a 52-week high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. Sell-side analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.36%.

Moody’s 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.