Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Acquires 2,942 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 21.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 16,785 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,942 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $6,556,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Prosperity Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter worth approximately $208,000. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth $225,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 65,351 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,523,000 after buying an additional 5,016 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 53.0% in the fourth quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 3,114 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,216,000 after buying an additional 1,079 shares during the period. Finally, Bison Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 1,611 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $629,000 after buying an additional 94 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MCO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $430.00 to $414.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock 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 note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $425.00 to $405.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $362.00 to $350.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Moody’s has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $397.75.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE:MCO opened at $374.60 on Friday. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $296.45 and a twelve month high of $407.62. The company has a market cap of $68.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $384.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $368.73. 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 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.33 by ($0.14). Moody’s had a return on equity of 55.23% and a net margin of 27.16%. The business had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 10.73 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

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

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.