Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Acquires New Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 53,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $25,191,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MCO. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 74,000.1% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 724,699 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $343,935,000 after purchasing an additional 723,721 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Moody’s by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,123,294,000 after buying an additional 723,226 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 32.0% in 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 buying an additional 502,891 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 22.6% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,107,344,000 after buying an additional 430,878 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 13.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,708,851,000 after acquiring an additional 416,535 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total transaction of $777,294.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $654,296. The trade was a 54.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.99, for a total transaction of $134,596.19. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,354 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,387,952.46. This represents a 0.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $489.02 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.67. Moody’s Co. has a 52 week low of $360.05 and a 52 week high of $503.95. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $478.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $460.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.61 billion, a PE ratio of 44.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.30.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.05% and a return on equity of 57.97%. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.43 EPS. Moody’s’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 12.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.05%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Moody’s from $462.00 to $481.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Raymond James lowered shares of Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Moody’s from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $536.00 to $543.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Moody’s currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $501.46.

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.