Teacher Retirement System of Texas Grows Stake in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 42.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 92,304 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 27,484 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned about 0.05% of Moody's worth $43,694,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody's by 12.3% in 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 buying an additional 723,226 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Moody's by 92,060.2% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 612,865 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $290,112,000 after acquiring an additional 612,200 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Moody's by 32.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,075,719 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $985,115,000 after purchasing an additional 502,891 shares during the period. Amundi raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 479,599 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody's by 13.0% in the 3rd 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 period. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MCO shares. Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of Moody's in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $504.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Moody's from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Moody's in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Moody's from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of 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 assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $527.00.

Insider Activity

In other Moody's news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.20, for a total value of $146,738.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $32,321,046.80. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company's stock.

Moody's Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:MCO traded up $8.37 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $477.52. 754,845 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 708,448. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $485.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $480.31. 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 $85.90 billion, a P/E 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.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Moody's Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody's Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This is an increase 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.