Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO) Position Reduced by Kerusso Capital Management LLC

Kerusso Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 42.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,836 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 3,531 shares during the period. Kerusso Capital Management LLC's holdings in Moody's were worth $2,289,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MCO. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody's by 74,000.1% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 724,699 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $343,935,000 after purchasing an additional 723,721 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody's by 12.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $3,123,294,000 after purchasing an additional 723,226 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Moody's by 32.0% in the third 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 purchasing an additional 502,891 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody's by 22.6% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,107,344,000 after purchasing an additional 430,878 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody's by 13.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,708,851,000 after purchasing an additional 416,535 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on MCO shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Moody's from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Moody's in a research report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody's from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 24th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Moody's in a research report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $565.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Moody's from $490.00 to $512.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moody's currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $528.77.

Moody's Trading Down 1.5 %

MCO stock traded down $8.00 on Thursday, hitting $511.27. 830,430 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 736,625. Moody's Co. has a twelve month low of $360.05 and a twelve month high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The business's fifty day moving average is $486.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $480.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $92.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.31.

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

Moody's Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. This is a positive change from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody's's dividend payout ratio is presently 30.17%.

Insider Transactions 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 shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

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.