Erste Asset Management GmbH Acquires Shares of 2,172 Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 2,172 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,036,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MCO. FMR LLC grew its stake in Moody's by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $3,123,294,000 after acquiring an additional 723,226 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Moody's by 92,060.2% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 612,865 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $290,112,000 after acquiring an additional 612,200 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Moody's by 32.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,075,719 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $985,115,000 after acquiring an additional 502,891 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 479,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in Moody's by 22.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,107,344,000 after acquiring an additional 430,878 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MCO. BMO Capital Markets upped 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 note on Tuesday, February 18th. Mizuho began coverage on shares of Moody's in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $504.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody's from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Moody's in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Moody's from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating 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 given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $527.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody's news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.20, for a total transaction of $146,738.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $32,321,046.80. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193 in the last ninety days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Moody's Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of MCO stock traded up $10.15 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $460.25. The company had a trading volume of 1,004,512 shares, compared to its average volume of 832,723. The company's fifty day moving average is $485.94 and its 200 day moving average is $480.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.67. Moody's Co. has a fifty-two week low of $360.05 and a fifty-two week high of $531.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $82.79 billion, a PE ratio of 40.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

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

Moody's Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This is a positive change from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. Moody's's dividend payout ratio is 33.36%.

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.