George Kaiser Family Foundation Invests $280,000 in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO)

George Kaiser Family Foundation purchased a new position in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 602 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $280,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 1,000.0% in the first quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 55 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 5,050.0% in the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 103 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s in the first quarter worth $49,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s by 132.6% in the first quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Motco increased its stake in Moody’s by 581.3% in the first quarter. Motco now owns 109 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Mizuho upped their target price on Moody’s from $496.00 to $532.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. UBS Group upped their target price on Moody’s from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Moody’s from $525.00 to $552.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Moody’s from $493.00 to $498.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on Moody’s from $552.00 to $563.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $538.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 2,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $511.18, for a total value of $1,083,701.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 5,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,841,138.44. This represents a 27.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael L. West sold 3,704 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $511.10, for a total value of $1,893,114.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 8,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,195,619.90. The trade was a 31.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,593 shares of company stock valued at $4,382,984. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $516.57 on Friday. Moody’s Corporation has a 1-year low of $378.71 and a 1-year high of $531.93. The business has a 50-day moving average of $499.24 and a 200-day moving average of $479.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The company has a market capitalization of $92.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.89, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 1.40.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.17. Moody’s had a return on equity of 60.73% and a net margin of 29.18%. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.95%.

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.