Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Sold by iA Global Asset Management Inc.

iA Global Asset Management Inc. lessened its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 19.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 8,713 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 2,126 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $4,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 42.4% in the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 92,304 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $43,694,000 after purchasing an additional 27,484 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 72,410 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,277,000 after purchasing an additional 4,411 shares in the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 8,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,815,000 after buying an additional 835 shares during the last quarter. Enhancing Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter valued at about $947,000. Finally, Xponance Inc. grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 47,526 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $22,497,000 after buying an additional 2,320 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.20, for a total transaction of $146,738.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,321,046.80. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MCO. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $527.00.

Moody’s Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:MCO opened at $459.57 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $485.42 and a 200-day moving average of $480.65. The firm has a market cap of $82.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $360.05 and a twelve month high of $531.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.94 dividend. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.36%.

Moody’s 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.