Ninety One UK Ltd Decreases Stock Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Ninety One UK Ltd reduced its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,916,009 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 3,009 shares during the quarter. Moody’s accounts for 2.2% of Ninety One UK Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Ninety One UK Ltd owned about 1.05% of Moody’s worth $748,316,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wealthsource Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 0.9% in the third quarter. Wealthsource Partners LLC now owns 3,522 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,114,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 2.0% in the third quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $499,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Realta Investment Advisors raised its holdings in Moody’s by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Realta Investment Advisors now owns 997 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $389,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc raised its holdings in Moody’s by 3.4% in the third quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 1,015 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $321,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Moody’s by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $419,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays raised shares of Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $375.00 to $450.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $355.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $420.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Moody’s from $425.00 to $405.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $397.75.

Moody’s Stock Performance

NYSE:MCO traded down $2.47 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $372.94. The stock had a trading volume of 256,349 shares, compared to its average volume of 712,565. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $385.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $368.69. Moody’s Co. has a 52 week low of $296.45 and a 52 week high of $407.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.19 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.33 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 27.16% and a return on equity of 55.23%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.60 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 10.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.91%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.95%.

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.