1,060 Shares in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Acquired by Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 1,060 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $502,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 723,226 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Moody’s by 92,060.2% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 612,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $290,112,000 after acquiring an additional 612,200 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Moody’s by 32.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,075,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $985,115,000 after acquiring an additional 502,891 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 22.6% in the 3rd 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 lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,708,851,000 after buying an additional 416,535 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $503.63 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $489.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $482.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $90.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.69, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $360.05 and a 1 year high of $531.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced 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. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Research analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.20, for a total value of $146,738.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,321,046.80. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MCO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group upped their target price on Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody’s currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $528.77.

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.