Envestnet Asset Management Inc. Sells 5,330 Shares of Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Envestnet Asset Management Inc. reduced its stake in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 2.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 263,147 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 5,330 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. owned about 0.15% of Moody's worth $124,566,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Moody's by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,696,081 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $6,956,684,000 after buying an additional 63,820 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Moody's during the fourth quarter valued at about $988,750,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody's by 3.6% during the fourth 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 during the period. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in shares of Moody's by 73.6% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,131,656 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $534,255,000 after purchasing an additional 479,599 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company's stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Moody's

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company's stock, 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 through the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,258 shares of company stock worth $610,936. Insiders own 0.14% of the company's stock.

Moody's Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE MCO traded up $5.52 during trading on Friday, reaching $428.55. The company had a trading volume of 883,782 shares, compared to its average volume of 772,536. Moody's Co. has a 12-month low of $360.05 and a 12-month high of $531.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The business's 50-day moving average is $471.20 and its 200 day moving average is $475.73. The stock has a market cap of $77.09 billion, a PE ratio of 38.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.38.

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

Moody's Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This is a boost from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. Moody's's dividend payout ratio is 33.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased 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. StockNews.com lowered Moody's from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Moody's from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Moody's from $570.00 to $520.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Moody's in a report on Friday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $524.86.

Moody's 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.