Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 454,684 Shares of Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 72.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,081,807 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 454,684 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $471,963,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 1,866.7% in the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 59 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Ares Financial Consulting LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 158 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.67, for a total transaction of $71,679.86. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 1,985 shares in the company, valued at $900,534.95. This represents a 7.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.39, for a total value of $684,194.13. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 75,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,067,397.71. This represents a 1.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 3,250 shares of company stock worth $1,495,098 over the last 90 days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on MCO. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $535.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Moody’s from $489.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Moody’s from $560.00 to $590.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $565.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $545.06.

Moody’s Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of MCO opened at $495.95 on Tuesday. Moody’s Corporation has a 12-month low of $402.28 and a 12-month high of $546.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.34. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $456.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $465.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.22 by $0.11. Moody’s had a net margin of 31.69% and a return on equity of 70.97%. The business had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.83 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.71 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were given a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is presently 29.53%.

Moody’s Profile

Moody’s Corporation is a global provider of credit ratings, research, data and analytics that support financial decision-making and transparency in capital markets. The company traces its origins to the early 20th century when financial analyst John Moody began publishing credit information; today Moody’s is headquartered in New York and serves a broad set of market participants including investors, issuers, financial institutions, corporations, governments and regulators.

Moody’s operates primarily through two complementary businesses.