Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 2.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,513 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 142 shares during the period. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $2,567,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Moody’s by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,815,629 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,899,490,000 after acquiring an additional 119,548 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Moody’s by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,590,679 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $752,980,000 after purchasing an additional 220,681 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 9.7% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,586,672 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $738,897,000 after purchasing an additional 140,128 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 21.0% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,530,582 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $712,777,000 after purchasing an additional 265,389 shares during the period. Finally, Valley Forge Capital Management LP grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Valley Forge Capital Management LP now owns 1,314,144 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $622,076,000 after purchasing an additional 25,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $520.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $509.00 to $534.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Moody’s from $493.00 to $498.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $540.57.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $499.00 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $89.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.40, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.42. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $507.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $479.22. Moody’s Corporation has a 12-month low of $378.71 and a 12-month high of $531.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 60.73% and a net margin of 29.18%.Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.28 EPS. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 31.95%.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 2,120 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.18, for a total value of $1,083,701.60. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,841,138.44. This represents a 27.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Noemie Clemence Heuland sold 897 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $508.24, for a total transaction of $455,891.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 2,148 shares in the company, valued at $1,091,699.52. The trade was a 29.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,008 shares of company stock worth $4,599,385 over the last ninety days. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.