Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) SVP Richard G. Steele Sells 1,862 Shares

Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total value of $848,010.66. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $473,647.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO stock traded up $5.15 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $464.93. 516,111 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 740,371. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a current ratio of 1.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.90 billion, a PE ratio of 50.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.28. Moody’s Co. has a 12 month low of $298.86 and a 12 month high of $465.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $431.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $403.77.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.30 earnings per share. Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 11.34 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 37.12%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $374.00 to $392.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 5th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $454.00 to $492.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $482.00 to $455.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $448.50.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moody’s

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s in the first quarter valued at about $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 114.3% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 75 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the first quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Y.D. More Investments Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the second quarter worth about $35,000. 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.