Moody's (MCO) Competitors

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) and Moody's (NYSE:MCO) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, risk, institutional ownership, community ranking, earnings, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Do analysts prefer CME or MCO?

CME Group presently has a consensus price target of $247.47, indicating a potential downside of 5.74%. Moody's has a consensus price target of $524.33, indicating a potential upside of 23.55%. Given Moody's' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Moody's is more favorable than CME Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CME Group	4 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.13
Moody's	1 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.53

Does the media refer more to CME or MCO?

In the previous week, CME Group had 21 more articles in the media than Moody's. MarketBeat recorded 57 mentions for CME Group and 36 mentions for Moody's. Moody's' average media sentiment score of 1.04 beat CME Group's score of 0.98 indicating that Moody's is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
CME Group	31 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	14 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Moody's	27 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in CME or MCO?

CME Group received 119 more outperform votes than Moody's when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 59.06% of users gave Moody's an outperform vote while only 58.67% of users gave CME Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
CME Group	Outperform Votes 670 58.67%	Underperform Votes 472 41.33%
Moody's	Outperform Votes 551 59.06%	Underperform Votes 382 40.94%

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of CME or MCO?

87.8% of CME Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of Moody's shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of CME Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Moody's shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is CME or MCO more profitable?

CME Group has a net margin of 57.52% compared to Moody's' net margin of 29.03%. Moody's' return on equity of 58.94% beat CME Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CME Group	57.52%	13.62%	2.81%
Moody's	29.03%	58.94%	14.87%

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, CME or MCO?

CME Group has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Moody's. CME Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Moody's, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CME Group	$6.13B	15.43	$3.53B	$9.67	27.15
Moody's	$7.09B	10.77	$2.06B	$11.27	37.66

Is CME or MCO a better dividend stock?

CME Group pays an annual dividend of $5.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Moody's pays an annual dividend of $3.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. CME Group pays out 51.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Moody's pays out 33.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Moody's has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Which has more volatility & risk, CME or MCO?

CME Group has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Moody's has a beta of 1.38, suggesting that its share price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Moody's beats CME Group on 14 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.