Sciencast Management LP Acquires New Shares in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Sciencast Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 2,982 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,412,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in Moody's by 12.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 723,226 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $290,112,000 after purchasing an additional 612,200 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in shares of Moody's by 73.6% during 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. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings 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 worth $1,708,851,000 after purchasing an additional 416,535 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canoe Financial LP lifted its position in shares of Moody's by 510.8% in the fourth quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 422,624 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $200,058,000 after buying an additional 353,431 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

MCO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Moody's from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Moody's in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target 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. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Moody's from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody's from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody's currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $527.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody's

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody'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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company's stock.

Moody's Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of MCO traded down $0.66 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $469.44. 526,672 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 707,385. 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 stock's 50-day moving average is $486.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $480.25. Moody's Co. has a 12 month low of $360.05 and a 12 month high of $531.93. The stock has a market cap of $84.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Research analysts forecast that Moody's Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody's Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. This is a positive change from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. Moody's's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.