National Bank of Canada FI Decreases Position in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO)

National Bank of Canada FI lessened its holdings in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 26.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 141,577 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 50,076 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI owned 0.08% of Moody's worth $59,650,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MCO. Conning Inc. boosted its position in Moody's by 3.0% in the second quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 778 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $327,000 after buying an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in Moody's by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,357 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $571,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its holdings in Moody's by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 960 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Moody's by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 150 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Advocates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moody's by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC now owns 1,890 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $738,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MCO. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Moody's from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Moody's from $420.00 to $451.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets cut Moody's from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $482.00 to $455.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Moody's from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Moody's from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moody's presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $465.00.

Moody's Stock Down 1.7 %

Moody's stock traded down $8.41 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $475.44. The stock had a trading volume of 659,427 shares, compared to its average volume of 728,927. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a current ratio of 1.52. Moody's Co. has a fifty-two week low of $298.86 and a fifty-two week high of $490.18. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $457.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $416.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.82 billion, a PE ratio of 51.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.28.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. Moody's had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. Moody's's quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.30 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Moody's Co. will post 11.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody's Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Moody's's dividend payout ratio is presently 37.12%.

Insider Activity at Moody's

In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value of $252,783.94. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,147 shares in the company, valued at $3,619,386.22. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Moody's news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total value of $848,010.66. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares of the company's stock, valued at $473,647.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value of $252,783.94. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,147 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,619,386.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825 over the last 90 days. 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.