BMO Capital Markets Lowers Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) to Market Perform

BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $455.00 price objective on the business services provider’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $482.00.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Barclays upgraded Moody’s from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and increased their target price for the company from $375.00 to $450.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $405.00 to $414.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $424.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, July 1st. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $448.50.

Moody’s Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of MCO opened at $449.00 on Wednesday. Moody’s has a fifty-two week low of $298.86 and a fifty-two week high of $458.24. The firm has a market cap of $81.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.02, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $422.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $399.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.52.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.30 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Moody’s will post 11.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 37.12%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moody’s

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 21.3% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 16,785 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,556,000 after buying an additional 2,942 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its stake in Moody’s by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 72,689 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $28,389,000 after acquiring an additional 2,933 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 392.6% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 24,668 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,634,000 after purchasing an additional 19,660 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 679,237 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $265,285,000 after purchasing an additional 14,344 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Motco boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 9,756.3% in the 1st quarter. Motco now owns 1,577 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $620,000 after purchasing an additional 1,561 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.