Brokerages Set Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Target Price at $483.85

Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $487.77.

MCO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Raymond James cut shares of Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $482.00 to $455.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 24th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total transaction of $232,030.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,084,606.82. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total transaction of $252,783.94. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total value of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,084,606.82. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of MCO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Moody’s by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,283,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,613,867,000 after acquiring an additional 119,450 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Moody’s by 8.4% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,918,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,228,382,000 after purchasing an additional 225,846 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s by 133.9% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $958,481,000 after buying an additional 1,303,434 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 1,980,021 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $833,450,000 after buying an additional 24,107 shares during the period. Finally, Windacre Partnership LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 11.1% during the 1st quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 1,746,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $686,230,000 after acquiring an additional 173,900 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moody’s Stock Up 1.2 %

MCO stock opened at $475.11 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $474.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $432.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52. Moody’s has a 1-year low of $298.86 and a 1-year high of $495.10. The firm has a market cap of $86.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.87, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.30 earnings per share. Moody’s’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Moody’s will post 11.46 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.12%.

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.