Rodgers Brothers Inc. Sells 38 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Rodgers Brothers Inc. trimmed its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,149 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 38 shares during the quarter. Rodgers Brothers Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,964,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 272.2% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 67 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter valued at about $42,000. Albion Financial Group UT purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on MCO shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Mizuho began coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 target price on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody’s presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $527.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. 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 sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:MCO opened at $461.09 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $485.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $480.01. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $360.05 and a 1 year high of $531.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $82.95 billion, a PE ratio of 40.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

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

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.