Abacus Planning Group Inc. Sells 28 Shares of Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Abacus Planning Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 2.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,112 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 28 shares during the quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $558,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MCO. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Moody’s during the first quarter worth about $328,595,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 21.0% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,530,582 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $712,777,000 after acquiring an additional 265,389 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 142.4% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 71,040 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $33,083,000 after acquiring an additional 238,569 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 10.3% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,311,020 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,159,185,000 after acquiring an additional 215,551 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 70.0% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 447,444 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $208,370,000 after acquiring an additional 184,297 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $595.00 to $597.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $493.00 to $498.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $496.00 to $532.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $509.00 to $534.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $541.21.

Insider Activity

In other Moody’s news, insider Michael L. West sold 3,704 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.10, for a total transaction of $1,893,114.40. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 8,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,195,619.90. This trade represents a 31.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,457 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $508.83, for a total transaction of $741,365.31. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 1,386 shares in the company, valued at $705,238.38. This trade represents a 51.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 9,423 shares of company stock valued at $4,812,135. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $481.55 on Friday. Moody’s Corporation has a 1 year low of $378.71 and a 1 year high of $531.93. The firm has a market cap of $86.20 billion, a PE ratio of 40.91, a PEG ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.42. 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 50 day simple moving average of $504.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $481.48.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.18% and a return on equity of 60.73%. 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 business posted $3.28 earnings per share. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. Analysts expect that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.95%.

About Moody’s

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.