Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Purchased by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,696,081 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 63,820 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 8.11% of Moody's worth $6,956,684,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. LPL Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Moody's by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 113,273 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $53,620,000 after buying an additional 4,527 shares during the last quarter. Fortis Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moody's by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Fortis Capital Management LLC now owns 5,708 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $2,702,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in shares of Moody's during the fourth quarter worth about $42,206,000. AXQ Capital LP increased its position in shares of Moody's by 208.5% during the fourth quarter. AXQ Capital LP now owns 2,021 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $957,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody's by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 123,444 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $58,434,000 after acquiring an additional 26,249 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company's stock.

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Insider Activity at Moody's

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody's stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,314,236.28. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Moody's Price Performance

MCO traded down $1.03 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $469.07. 198,757 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 706,112. Moody's Co. has a 1-year low of $360.05 and a 1-year high of $531.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.38 billion, a PE ratio of 41.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. 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 business's 50-day moving average price is $486.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $480.25.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Moody's had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Moody's Co. will post 13.95 EPS 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 given a dividend of $0.94 per share. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This is a boost from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody's's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.