Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Updates FY24 Earnings Guidance

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $11.90-12.10 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $11.68. Moody’s also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 11.900-12.100 EPS.

Moody’s Trading Down 0.1 %

MCO traded down $0.36 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $468.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 73,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 740,132. Moody’s has a 52-week low of $298.86 and a 52-week high of $495.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $478.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $437.61. The firm has a market cap of $85.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.23, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. Moody’s’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.43 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Moody’s will post 11.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.12%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MCO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America lifted their price target on Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Moody’s from $490.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Moody’s from $454.00 to $459.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $500.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total value of $848,010.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $473,647.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,619,386.22. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total transaction of $848,010.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $473,647.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Moody’s

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.