Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) PT Raised to $512.00

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) had its target price upped by equities researchers at Robert W. Baird from $490.00 to $512.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the business services provider’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s price target indicates a potential upside of 9.65% from the company’s previous close.

MCO has been the subject of several other reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Raymond James downgraded Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $521.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $500.00.

Moody’s Price Performance

NYSE:MCO opened at $466.94 on Wednesday. Moody’s has a 52 week low of $298.86 and a 52 week high of $495.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $478.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $437.61. The company has a market capitalization of $85.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.98, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. Moody’s’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.43 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Moody’s will post 11.46 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 value of $848,010.66. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $473,647.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total transaction of $232,030.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,084,606.82. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total value of $848,010.66. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $473,647.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 133.9% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $958,481,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303,434 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Moody’s by 74,000.1% during 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 buying an additional 723,721 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Moody’s in the second quarter valued at about $141,336,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 41,992.9% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 279,918 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $117,826,000 after acquiring an additional 279,253 shares during the period. Finally, Allen Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 39.7% during the 1st quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 895,050 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $351,781,000 after acquiring an additional 254,178 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Company 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.