Bank of Montreal Can Sells 25,938 Shares of Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Bank of Montreal Can cut its holdings in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 12.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 191,042 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 25,938 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned approximately 0.11% of Moody's worth $90,434,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MCO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moody's by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,696,081 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $6,956,684,000 after purchasing an additional 63,820 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moody's by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,680,799 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,738,645,000 after acquiring an additional 68,627 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Moody's in the 4th quarter worth about $988,750,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Moody's by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,537,331 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $727,726,000 after purchasing an additional 53,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its position in Moody's by 73.6% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,131,656 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $534,255,000 after purchasing an additional 479,599 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Moody's from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Moody's in a report on Thursday. They set a "buy" rating and a $530.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Moody's from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Moody's in a report on Friday, December 20th. They set a "buy" rating and a $565.00 price target on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Moody's from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $524.86.

Insider Activity

In other Moody's news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,258 shares of company stock worth $610,936. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Moody's Price Performance

Shares of MCO traded up $9.02 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $437.45. 107,854 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 769,991. The stock has a market cap of $78.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.82, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.38. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $471.20 and a 200-day moving average of $475.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. Moody's Co. has a 52 week low of $360.05 and a 52 week high of $531.93.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody's had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.70 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Moody's Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody's Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This is an increase from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.86%. Moody's's payout ratio is 33.36%.

Moody's Company 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.