Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Sells 957 Shares of Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS reduced its position in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,135 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 957 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS's holdings in Moody's were worth $15,685,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody's by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $3,123,294,000 after acquiring an additional 723,226 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings 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 worth $290,112,000 after purchasing an additional 612,200 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised 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 worth $985,115,000 after purchasing an additional 502,891 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings 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 valued at $534,255,000 after purchasing an additional 479,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody's by 13.0% during 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 buying an additional 416,535 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on MCO shares. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Moody's from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Moody's in a report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $565.00 target price for the company. Mizuho began coverage on shares of Moody's in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $504.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Moody's from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Moody's from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moody's has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $527.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company's stock.

Moody's Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MCO traded up $8.37 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $477.52. The company's stock had a trading volume of 754,845 shares, compared to its average volume of 708,448. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $485.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $480.31. Moody's Co. has a one year low of $360.05 and a one year high of $531.93.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Moody's Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody's Increases Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This is a positive change from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody's's payout ratio is presently 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.