Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO) to Issue Dividend Increase - $0.94 Per Share

Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of 0.94 per share by the business services provider on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This is a boost from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.85.

Moody's has raised its dividend by an average of 11.1% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 15 consecutive years. Moody's has a payout ratio of 22.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Moody's to earn $13.42 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.3%.

Moody's Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MCO traded down $6.39 on Tuesday, hitting $516.45. The company's stock had a trading volume of 309,253 shares, compared to its average volume of 710,599. The company has a market capitalization of $93.58 billion, a PE ratio of 47.28, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.67. Moody's has a 1 year low of $360.05 and a 1 year high of $531.93. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $485.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $479.39.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.70 billion. Moody's had a return on equity of 57.97% and a net margin of 29.05%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Moody's will post 12.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MCO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Moody's from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group raised their price objective on Moody's from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Moody's from $468.00 to $481.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Moody's from $490.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Moody's in a research report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $524.92.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $494.42, for a total value of $138,932.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $30,601,631.48. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 843 shares of company stock worth $405,455 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.