Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC Makes New $445,000 Investment in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 939 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $445,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Moody's by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,696,081 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $6,956,684,000 after purchasing an additional 63,820 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Moody's by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,680,799 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,738,645,000 after purchasing an additional 68,627 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Moody's during the fourth quarter worth approximately $988,750,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Moody's by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,537,331 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $727,726,000 after purchasing an additional 53,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in shares of Moody's by 73.6% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,131,656 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $534,255,000 after acquiring an additional 479,599 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.20, for a total value of $146,738.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at $32,321,046.80. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 1,392 shares of company stock worth $659,535 in the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on MCO shares. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Moody's in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $504.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of Moody's from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Moody's in a report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Moody's from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Moody's from $585.00 to $495.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $524.33.

Moody's Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of MCO traded down $1.29 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $424.40. 953,319 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 772,822. The company has a market cap of $76.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.38. Moody's Co. has a 1-year low of $360.05 and a 1-year high of $531.93. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $463.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $474.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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. Moody's had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Research analysts expect that Moody's Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a $0.94 dividend. This is an increase from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Moody's's payout ratio is presently 33.36%.

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.