Summit Trail Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Summit Trail Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 8.6% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,634 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Summit Trail Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $775,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MCO. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 272.2% in 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 period. Okabena Investment Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Okabena Investment Services Inc. now owns 2,767 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,313,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 722 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $343,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 2.8% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 40,082 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $19,023,000 after buying an additional 1,075 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meridian Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Moody’s during the third quarter valued at approximately $210,000. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on MCO. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays lifted their target price on Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Raymond James cut Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $454.00 to $459.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $500.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

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 value of $777,294.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $654,296. This trade represents a 54.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $29,387,952.46. This trade represents a 0.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Moody’s Trading Up 2.8 %

Moody’s stock opened at $494.03 on Tuesday. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $358.49 and a 1 year high of $495.10. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $473.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $452.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The stock has a market cap of $89.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.12, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.29.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.43 EPS. Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 12.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. Moody’s’s payout ratio is presently 31.05%.

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.